


Lost Boy

by keyxkeeperx



Category: Lost Boys (Movies)
Genre: Absentee father, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Attempted Kidnapping, Friendship, M/M, Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2019-06-09 05:57:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 48,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15260913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keyxkeeperx/pseuds/keyxkeeperx
Summary: Most everyone assumes that Michael wasn't apart of the vampire gang until 1987 when he moved there with Lucy and Sam, but that's not the truth. He'd been a lost boy ever since he was six.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I really like the soulmate au for this movie for some reason, but I realized that there's a pretty big missed opportunity here that no one really seems to have taken. Realistically, the Emerson family might have paid their Grandpa a visit in Santa Carla AT LEAST ONCE before the events of the movie. And David and his gang had been living in Santa Carla for possibly an extremely long time. All it takes is one absentee father and boom, they run into each other.
> 
> Similarly, I like the idea that if you're immortal and you meet your soulmate before they're of age, your feeling towards them may be more like that of an older sibling or parents.
> 
> *Now Edited*

1975 - Santa Carla Boardwalk, California

 

Michael looks around the boardwalk with as much wonder a six year old could have. His steps slow down to a halt as he looks over the array of necklaces on the stand, contemplating if two year old Sammie might like one of the vibrant colored flowers dangling from a chain. All around him tourists and locals pass him by, paying absolutely no mind to the lone child. Almost everyone that is.

“Hey dad,” Michael starts but freezes when he sees his old man is nowhere to be found. But that’s not right, he was just here a minute ago. “Dad?” Michael looks around now. He calls out again but it’s too late.

Michael pouts and then bites at his lips, mind momentarily flitting over a dirty word he heard his father say. Mom didn’t like Michael using that kind of language and he loved her too much to upset her on purpose and it didn’t matter to him that Lucy and Sam were back at his grandparent’s house. Michael would be a good boy and not say it.

He took a slow deep breath and brushed back his fluffy curly hair, taking some joy in the knowledge that doing so would only make it all the more unruly. Any little thing to get back at his dad really. The bastard not only ignored Michael for a majority of this trip to the boardwalk but now he’s gone and disappeared and probably won’t even notice that Michael’s missing.

But now Michael has been put into a stressful position. He now has to come to a decision on what to do about this situation. A decision which requires a lot of maturity and thinking to make properly.

Mom isn’t here to come looking for him and if Dad has it his way she won’t ever learn about this incident. Dad has the tendency to get distracted easily and tends to be extremely forgetful whenever it comes to Michael and Sam, conversations with pretty ladies always seemed to be what draws his attention the most and if it’s not women it’s beer. This essentially means that even if Dad did notice Michael’s missing he either won’t bother looking for Michael until after a few hours have passed OR he will simply wait for Michael to come find him.

It’s unfortunate how often this happens when they’re supposed to be having “Father Son Fun.” Mom NEVER looses Michael and when she does it’s typically because Michael wandered off on purpose just to play a game with her. PLUS mom always pays attention to him and has nice conversations with him. Dad doesn’t.

…Dad’s kind of a jerk.

So here he is, standing in front of the store, considering his options. Really, he’s only got two of them right now and the defining factor is how Michael would LIKE his evening to go.

Firstly, Michael could stay right there until an adult decides to be so gracious as to help him (rare) and use a speaker system to call for his father (who doesn’t even show up quickly to get Michael.) If an adult doesn’t help, Michael plays the waiting game like Lucy instructed, and doesn’t move from his spot. He could simply wait for his dad to come back down the road since the car is parked in the opposite direction and then catch up to him once more.

The second option would be to continue walking in the direction they were already heading, maybe peek into every store until he came across his dad. So long as his dad didn’t take a random turn and go off of the main path, then finding him should be relatively easy. This option required significantly more diligence however in that Michael had to be extremely weary of everyone around him and at his height it’s not easy to see every face. But it would be worth it, have no doubt. His father was always happier when Michael proved himself to be self-sufficient an stay out of his hair.

Sometimes it was almost like the man wished Michael were a ghost.

Michael couldn’t ignore that anxious feeling in his chest. There were too many people around, too many chances to be lost forever in the crowd. He almost felt as though the hair on the back of his neck stood up and although the second option would be more difficult for Michael, right now it felt like the best one.

He turned and took off walking down the road as quickly as possible without drawing too much attention to himself. For a moment he considered running instead. Maybe if it helped him find his dad faster it would be worth the scorn of other adults?

“Hey kiddo!” someone suddenly grabbed Michael by the shoulder, the hold slipping down onto his arm as he crouched down lower to leer at Michael in the face. “You seem lost.”

Michael never considered himself to have the sixth sense some of his weirder schoolmates liked to talk about. The instinct that told you that ghosts were in your vicinity, or that sixth sense that acted like a premonition, nor did he even feel like he had a good grasp on the concept of feeling people’s souls or vibes. But the feeling this man gave him was absolutely what Michael would consider to be within the same vein of that.

No, the look in his eye was all sorts of wrong. He literally sent off an alarm in Michael’s head that told Michael he should get away from this man as quickly as possible.

“I’m not lost.” he swallowed down that lump in his throat and lied.

“Well then, where’s your old man.” And ok, Michael may not be the smartest kid but why would this stranger immediately think Michael was here with his father and not both of his parents or mother?

“He’s over there.” Michael pointed down the boardwalk at no one in particular. The man checked over his shoulder and in that moment Michael began to pull away from the man. The hand on his arm grew tighter. “He’s waiting for me so I gotta go.” Michael used his other hand to try and pry the fingers loose. “Let go!” he yelled but the man smirked.

“We’ll you can’t just go wandering off like that, son.” The man grabbed Michael’s hand and began to pull him in the other direction, away from where Michael pointed. “We’re gonna have to have a talk about that later.”

“NO!” random eyes darted towards Michael. He felt like crying, the man’s grip was too tight. “Let me go!”

“Just come on now, If you behave I’ll get you some candy.” Michael shook his head.

Already they began to turn down a dark alley. As they walked farther and farther away from people Michael began to loose hope that anyone would notice his screams for help. No one stepped in back there so why would they now?

“LET GO OF ME!” Michael screeched as he clawed at the man’s hand.

He leaned forward and bit down hard onto the man’s wrist and screwed his eyes shut as he focused on biting as hard as he could. Harder than he ever dreamt of. Enough to draw blood if he had to.

“Ouch!” The man shoved Michael against the wall. “Knock that off!”

Tears blinded Michael. His head really hurt and he thinks he bit his tongue on accident. Before he could turn to run away the stranger’s hands were already on him once more.

“Excuse me,” the man’s hand flinched away from Michael. Michael blinked away some tears and turned to face the new stranger that followed them into the alley. “What do you think you’re doing?” judging from the stranger’s tone this was a rhetorical question. He didn’t care what excuse the man had and he actually sounded personally offended despite the flatness he spoke with.

Michael wondered if angels really did wear all white because this one wore almost nothing but black. Black leather jacket, black jeans, black boots, navy blue shirt. Hell, even the pasty white face, light blonde hair, and baby blue eyes even helped to sell the vision that Michael swore he saw in one of those religious paintings before.

This new stranger glanced over at Michael and he felt electric, excitement and admiration flow through his whole body. Heck! Even though he was probably just a teenager this was the COOLEST person Michael has ever seen. Even the smug smirk on his face looked cool!

“Just teaching my kid a lesson, none of your business.” the angel sucked in air through his teeth making a reverse hiss kind of sound. His eyes twitched as his head shook to the side like he was disappointed.

“But the thing is he ain’t your kid.” the angel began to walk forward. “You’re just some pathetic pedophile trying to get an easy lay.” The man flinched back away as the angel flashed him a cruel leer, one that promised pain and suffering.

Michael realized that the man was not holding onto him anymore and since he backed off Michael now had more than enough space to dart away back towards this angel and the entrance to the alley. The angel held his hand out to Michael and he happily took it. It was the lifebuoy Michael desperately needed and even the simple act of taking the hand made him feel significantly safer and calmer.

Maybe if his dad would let him hold his hand then this never would have happened.

Michael looked over at the other man, glaring at him from next to the angel. He definitely looked shaken and after a few more gaping breaths he turned and ran further down the alley, away from the two of them.

“Don’t worry about him, my boys will get him.” Michael didn’t really understand what that meant. Was this kid a cop? “Say, what’s your name? Mine’s David.” the angel got down on his knees and looked Michael in the eyes. The soft smile made Michael feel happy. Happier than he had in a while.

“I’m Michael.” David smiled and shook Michael’s hand.

“Well Michael, how about you and I go look for your real dad?”

Michael looked back down the alley with a slight frown, remembering the other man and how he approached him. For a moment he wondered if he should be equally as weary of David. But he didn’t feel scared of David like he did that other man.

“I guess.” David chuckled and gave a nod.

“How about I carry you so that you can see him better? There’s a lot of folks out here tonight.” Michael bit his lip.

“Like a piggy back ride?” David’s soft smile grew.

“Sure!” David helped Michael climb up onto his shoulders and Michael felt breathless for a moment.

When he was smaller mom used to give him piggy back rides all of the time, dad even did it a few times. But neither of them felt THIS secure and the newfound height gave Michael a rush. He couldn’t help but to giggle as he looked over all of the adults whilst David walked in the right direction and away from the alley.

“So Michael, where are you from? You’re clearly not from around here.” David called from below.

“Phoenix, Arizona! Do you live here, David?” Michael could feel David’s head nod.

“I’ve been here a pretty long time. Used to move around a lot until my dad decided he really liked it here.”

“Do you like it?”

“Do you like Arizona?” Michael thought about it for a moment.

“It’s ok.” David chuckled.

“So, is it just you and your dad or is there more to the clan?”

“Well I got my mom too, she’s the best! And then Sammy whose like only two right now but I swear he’s such a cool baby! He can say my name!”

“I got some brothers too,”

“Really? How many?”

“Three. I’m the oldest, and then it’s Dwayne, Marco, and Paul.” Michael rocked from side to side as his head swept around, still looking for his father.

“That’s a lot of brothers.”

“Yeah, kind of. But they’re like my best friends, I don’t know what i’d do without them.” Michael nodded. He definitely could understand that even though Sam was still just a baby.

“Oh!” Michael gasped before he frowned and let out an angry huff. In front of a game stall his dad stood relaxed, chatting it up with some lady. They looked all chummy as they both let out a laugh. “Augh, I hate it when he does that.”

“What? You don’t like it when he talks to other people?” For a moment Michael wondered if David was just being sarcastic.

“No, he’s totally flirting with her!” Michael leaned foreword as he let his head hang and sighed heavily. “Mom’s gonna be upset if she finds out.” David was silent for a moment as they both watched the pair chatting from far away.

“Your dad seems like a jerk.” David finally admitted. Michael couldn’t agree more. “But you know what? My dad’s kinda a jerk too.” Michael sighed once more.

This was supposed to be a nice family vacation. A chance to comfort Grandpa whom just lost his wife and refused to move to Arizona with them despite now being alone. A chance to meet his grandpa since none of them had enough money to make yearly visits.

This was also supposed to be their chance to reconnect as a family. Michael knew dad had been drifting away for a while now and this was supposed to be a chance to fix that. Mom refused to simply give up on their relationship, especially with Sam and Michael being so young, but right now Michael wasn’t sure this could be fixed. She said that relationship issues were normal, that any good relationship just needed some communication and effort, and Michael wanted to believe that it would work out. He really did.

“Hey, you ok up there?” David called out.

“Yeah I guess. I may as well just go stand with him and wait for him to get bored.”

He didn’t even get to ride any rides today. Dad was late getting them both to the boardwalk. Sure they ate dinner, but then dad used that as an excuse to not get on any rides and instead browse the shops.

David picked Michael up easily and settled him down on the ground. Michael was ready to walk away but a gentle tap on his shoulder drew his attention back towards David.

“You did good tonight kid, gotta say, a lot of kids don’t struggle quite like you do. But you’re still small and being ferocious won’t get you out of every scrape ok?” David pulled a small metal bar from his pocket and with a flick revealed the blade. “So promise me you’ll learn to defend yourself and keep this on you as much as possible. It’s not much, but it’s enough to scare some people away until you get big and strong like me.”

Michael nodded and watched as David showed him how to open and close the blade. He tested it out a few times and finally David nodded, reaching a hand up to ruffle and mess up Michaels hair further. Michael shot David one final shy smile before pocketing the knife.

“Thank you!” Michael really wanted to hug David but paused. What if David didn’t like hugs like his father?

David muse have noticed Michael’s hesitation because with one arm he reached around Michael’s shoulders and drew him in for a quick hug. A stray hand petted Michael’s head and Michael, now giddy, reacher up to return the hug. David let go and Michael turned and ran over to his father in a significantly better mood than before.

“Stay out of trouble…Michael.”

David slunk back into the crowd. For the next hour Michael made sure to keep extra close to his father whom refused to even acknowledge Michael’s previously missing status. Every once in a while Michael would look around the crowd, wondering if David was still hanging around the boardwalk and wondering if he could catch another sight of his angel. Unfortunately he never caught sight of David and he spent the drive home thinking about his time at the boardwalk. He thought about David as he drifted off to sleep.

David, on the other hand, kept an eye on Michael all the way up until his father finally tore out of the parking lot. His stomach ached but he didn’t really feel the need to feed. No, instead David felt more than content to let the hunger eat at him. He was in far too good a mood to care. Even as he returned to the cave, returned to the noisy jabs and snarky remarks, he felt relaxed and happier than he ever thought imaginable.

“Looks like David’s got a crush!” Marko snickered and tossed a piece of popcorn at Paul whom caught it in his mouth. David shot him a grossed out look.

“That’s disgusting, he’s only a kid.” Marko shrugged.

“I’m sure after a few hundred years almost everyone seems like a child compared to you.” Paul chittered and nearly missed catching the next piece of popcorn.

“Yeah, but that’s way too young. He’s only like five.” David sighed as he leaned back in his chair, taking a heavy swig of the beer.

“You said he’s here on vacation?” Dwayne’s head popped up from whatever pile of crap he had been digging around. David had no idea what he was looking for.

“Oooohhhh, you gonna stalk him the whole trip?” Paul called from his new perch on the fountain. Marco dangled from the ceiling above him, ready to toss the popcorn down for Paul to catch.

“Bet you he’s just gonna follow the kid all the way back to Oregon.”

“Arizona.” David corrected.

“That’s a pretty sunny State there David.” Marco chimed from the ceiling.

“Real sunny, don’tcha agree Dwayne?” Paul echoed.

“It’s sunny everywhere.” Dwayne held up a box, digging through its contents before tossing it aside. Paul and Marco scoffed.

“C’mon man!” Marko almost sounded offended that Dwayne wasn’t in the mood to play along. David watched the duo of idiots toss some popcorn kernels at Dwayne.

“Knock it off!” Dwayne growled as he swatted away the popcorn attack.

“What’s got your panties in a twist?” Marco tutted.

Dwayne frowned and turned back to the pile before throwing a worrying amount of cockroaches back at Paul and Marko. Soon enough their little play-fight grew to include cans, bottles, trash, and anything else they didn’t care about breaking.

David watched from his chair, never getting close to being hit, and enjoyed the chaos. Instead he thought about only one person. The one whom someday would join his clan and live forever together with them. And someday David’s feelings towards Michael might change into something much more intimate, but for now David was content to take the role that an older protective brother.

A much older, much deadlier immortal brother.

 

~~~~~

 

“Okay Sammy!” Michael picked up the next card. “What animal is this?” he showed Sam the card and waited patiently whilst Lucy watched from between them.

“Doggy!” Lucy clapped and cheered and Michael reached over to give Sam a small high-five.

“Yes Sammy, doggy!” Lucy smiled at the boys and watched Michael as he pulled out a new card. Although the smile never left her face, she couldn’t help but feel a little worried.

Two days ago Michael and his father went to the boardwalk for what was supposed to be father son fun. They told her they had a good time but she knew that they were hiding something and she couldn’t help but to feel a little frustrated when the father finally admitted that Michael disappeared for a few minutes.

Later on Lucy spoke with Michael and nearly felt heart broken when he told her how a man tried to drag him away and that he had to rely on the help of another just to escape. Lucy was appalled that the stranger, David, gave Michael a switchblade just to protect himself. This David, sure he may have wanted Michael to be able to stay safe, but what kind of idiot gives a six year old a switch blade!?

Lucy was completely frustrated and angry. But hey, they were all trying to be better right? Accidents happen. Michael wasn’t seriously hurt so everything should be ok.

Well, that’s what Lucy WANTED to feel but Michael was just a little different all of a sudden. Maybe the incident seriously scared him. Maybe something else happened that no one mentioned. Maybe Michael had grown up just enough to be noticeable now.

Before all of this, Michael was just a typical older brother. Mostly he wanted to not be stuck with Sammy. He got annoyed with Sam when he cried too much, picked on him a little, played with him a lot, however now he was so much more…protective and proactive and caring. It was like Michael just suddenly decided to up his big brother game, decided that it’s now his job to defend and protect and take care of his baby brother.

Don’t get her wrong, it’s nice to have an extra helping hand. But the sudden change of his attitude was a little jarring. And as much as Lucy hoped it wasn’t so, it’s more than likely a result of the incident. Michael seemed much happier now though, less inclined to go running after his father in search of attention and more inclined to give it all to Sam instead. A sad thing really.

Hopefully they can fix too.

“Now what’s this?” Michael held up a picture of a banana.

“Nana!” Michael and Lucy cheered once more.

Lucy turned to the picnic basket and pulled out a bottle of water.

“You thirsty Michael?” Michael happily took it and tried to get Sam to drink some water as well.

Despite the heat of the late evening, Lucy thought it was actually quite nice out. The sun completely set about half an hour ago and the sky was extremely clear tonight so the stars were shining brilliantly for everyone on the beach. All along the beach, plenty of people chattered and drank and waited, some of the rowdier ones playing music and dancing with no campfire. No, that would ruin the spectacle.

“Sammy, you wanna play?” Michael held up a soft foamy ball. Sam nodded and clapped.

“Yes please!”

And oh how cute! Michael gently tossed the ball underhanded and Sam tried his hardest to catch it. Despite the lack of practice with his father, Michael almost only gave Sam perfect throws.

“Good job! Now toss it back.” Sam clumsily tossed to back to Michael and they continued on like that for a while.

“He’s gonna be all tuckered out tonight.” Lucy commented as she watched the two.

“That’s good! It means he’ll sleep good.” Michael leaned forward to grab the ball. Lucy ran a hand through Michael’s hair gently, fluffing it up for him just like how he likes it.

“I know i’m definitely going to sleep like a log, what about you?” Michael stuck his tongue out in concentration before tossing it once more.

“I don’t know. I’m not really feeling tired yet.” Lucy nodded. Sam began to fuss about being hungry so she pulled out some snacks from the basket and helped him eat.

Michael watched them for a moment, slowly realizing that he felt the weight of eyes watching him. They were watching him for a while and for a moment he swore a shiver of fear trickled down his back, remembering what happened last time. This time he looked around the crowd, slowly turning his head just slightly, just enough to conceal the fact that he was looking for a creeper. What he found instead, however, was something that excited him.

“David!!!” Michael’s head pivoted suddenly with his body as he rose a hand to wave at the blonde.

Though separated by a relatively large crowd of people, David had no trouble darting between the bodies and settling down in front of Michael. Lucy watched with mild apprehension as she recognized the name.

Initially she assumed David was a grown man but looking at him now he must have been around seventeen. Possibly a trouble maker if she were to go by the wardrobe alone, but maybe just a punk indulging in certain fashions. He did help Michael the other day. Though if he sticks around long enough Lucy will be more than happy to talk to him about how inappropriate it is to give a child a sharp knife. Maybe it just didn’t occur to him. Some people were just so ignorant.

“Hey Michael, whats up?” Michael stood so that he could be eye-level with David and pointed up to the sky.

“Are you gonna watch the fireworks?” David rubbed his chin and looked around, giving a small hum as if he were actually contemplating it.

“Unfortunately no. My ears are just too sensitive.” Michael looked sad for a moment.

“My ears used to be really sensitive too! Mom used to give me ear muffs and buds to block out some of the sound! Tonight’s gonna be Sammy’s first show so we’re gonna see how if it bothers him too.” Michael gasped. “Oh! This is Sammy!” He turned and pointed at his brother whom was currently more than pleased to focus on his food. “And this is my mom!”

And, well, just watching the two, Lucy couldn’t bring herself to be mad at David or have any bad feelings towards him. Michael was such a sweet boy and clearly David was more than kind enough to put up with Michael’s rambling, it almost looked like he was happy to have Michael’s attention. So Lucy gave David a small wave and smile.

“Hello, I’m Lucy.” David reached a gloved hand out and they shook hands. He gave a sheepish smile.

“You know, Michael told me how great you were, but he didn’t tell me you’re really pretty.” Lucy flushed.

“And he didn’t tell me that you’re quite the charmer!” she laughed. “How old are you David? Seventeen?” David smirked and looked away.

“Yeah, but good mothers deserve to know how great they are.” And ok, obviously he’s just trying to get on Lucy’s good side, but after all of the frustration and struggles of the past few months Lucy decided to let it slide. “The old man not here tonight?” Lucy shook her head.

“No, he had a really bad headache so he’s staying at the house tonight.” David nodded and looked around the crowd. It was almost as though someone were calling to him and he was trying to see them.

“That’s a shame, it’s a pretty nice show.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to stick around and watch it? I think I have some extra ear plugs.” David’s expression almost completely slipped into shock before he raised a hand and shook his head.

“Thank you, but those don’t really work for me.” He ruffled Michaels hair. “But make sure you take it in as much as possible and enjoy it for me, ok Michael?” Michael still seemed a little sad but nodded.

“Ok, David.” David shot Michael a really nice smile that Michael couldn’t help but to return.

“It’ll be starting in about twenty minutes.” he caught Lucy’s eyes once more. “You guys have a nice night.”

“Have a good night, David.”

“Good night, David!” Michael waved as David stood and stocked off, disappearing back into the crowd.

 

~~~~~

 

“Man! I hate fireworks!” Paul hissed and pressed his hands against his ears while watching the display.

Despite the distance David and his boys put between themselves and the fireworks shows, they could still hear it easily. To a human with normal hearing, right now it’d be like hearing an obnoxious person speaking loudly in an art gallery. One with an awful echo problem.

None of the other boys had to voice their agreement. Luckily tonight none of them would be hungry, they ate more than enough the night before simply in preparation of tonight. No, unlike their usual nights of partying screaming and loud music, tonight would be a quiet one for them once the fireworks stopped.

Finally the last of the fireworks popped off and the brilliant display burned at David’s eyes as it did for the rest of them.

“Thank fuck.” Paul grouched and lowered his hands.

“I’m still gonna need some booze just to drown that out.” Marko admitted, now that the fireworks were done with his hands were finally free and he began to nibble at one of his fingered gloved. “I swear my ears will be ringing for weeks!” Dwayne and David rolled their eyes.

“It’s just cause you’re still young.” Dwayne shoved Marko lightly as he walked past the shortie. “You’re still teething like a child.” Paul let out a laugh.

“Fuck you! It’s a comfort thing!”

“It doesn’t get better with age.” David cut off the argument before it could even begin. “You just get used to it.” David stretched and laid down on the grassy hill. He was in no rush to go anywhere tonight.

“You look oddly chill tonight.” Paul sat down by David’s feet and glared towards the lingering smoke from the fireworks.

“That’s because he visited Michael again.” Dwayne pulled out a box of beer and passed them around. Marko stole Paul’s before he could grab it and ducked away with a smirk and a snicker. Paul made to smack at Marko but missed and chased after the brat.

“Hey! Give that back!” Marko laughed. David sighed and took the beer though he made no move to sit up. Dwayne and David watched the two wrestle each other onto the ground, spilling the beer all over themselves like a pair of clowns.

“So what are you going to do about him?” Dwayne finally asked before taking another swig. He didn’t need to specify whom he was speaking about, David already knew through their link.

“What is there to do? He’s too young to change and I’m not keen on having a kid be apart of the clan. Seems kind of cruel, don’t you think?” Dwayne nodded. Paul and Marko finally settled down enough to actually drink their beers rather than pour it on each other.

“Well you said he’s on vacation, you just going to let him go back?” David stared at his beer before answering.

“I guess I have to, don’t I? You should have seen how happy he was with his family. I don’t think I can tear him away from that just yet.” he finished his bottle and chucked it at Paul and Marko.

“HEY!” they screeched as they dodged it. They tossed back some pebbles though they didn’t actually hit David or Dwayne with them.

“I don’t think any of us want to bother with raising a kid anyhow.” Dwayne nodded as he listened. “Plus, if Max catches wind of it he might try to cause problems for us.”

“He’s always causing problems for us. That’s nothing new.”

As nice as the thought was to be present for Michael’s trip through childhood and into puberty, David thought leaving it as a surprise would suit him much better. Let Michael grow into the person he’s meant to be without David there to manipulate him. It would make their future relationship more natural. Although, that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to get his fill of Michael before his vacation was over.

 

~~~~~

 

Michael sighed heavily as he looked over Sammy finally sleeping soundly. It didn’t take long, he made sure to play and wear him down before helping Grandpa get him ready for bed, but perhaps the whole process tired Michael out more than he initially thought. Michael sat down on his parents guest bed and watched Sam sleeping in the crib. Is this what his mother did every night? She probably had to do this with Michael too.

Just the idea of doing this every night made Michael feel exhausted.

He laid down on the bed and breathed heavily, trying to fall asleep near the foot of the bed despite the lack of a proper blanket or pillow to comfort himself with. Not that it mattered, after ten minutes he ended up feeling completely awake again.

Michael really wished his mom would come back from her dinner date already. Today was supposed to be her day with dad but he wanted someone to come keep him company until he could fall asleep. Grandpa already passed out on the couch downstairs. Michael couldn’t hear the snoring since he shut the door to the bedroom. He didn’t need to wake Sam up again, he didn’t have the energy to put him back to sleep.

He crawled up the bed and peered between the blinds, out the window. Once more the night sky was clear with the moon big and brightly dangling far out of Michael’s reach. With a pull the blinds went up and now he could sit on the bed and simply look out, but still, he needed something more.

The window slid up easily and now Michael could enjoy the fresh air of the night. He leaned on the window sill, dangling his arms over the edge and relaxed. Maybe he’ll just wait here until they to get home.

“Michael,” Michael squeaked and looked around the bedroom. No one but Sam and himself stood inside. “Michael,” it sounded like David was snickering just outside the window. Michael shoved his head back out the window and looked around. A finger poked at the top of his head and he looked up. “Aren’t you supposed to be in bed right now? It’s pretty late.”

“David!” Michael gaped at the older boy. David sat perched on the lip of the roof with his legs dangling over the edge, one ankle crossed over a thigh. Despite the angle of the roof he didn’t look like he had to hold on just to stay in place.

“Shh,” David held a finger up to his lips. “Let’s not wake anyone.”

“Why are you on my roof?” Michael’s neck began to hurt from the awkward angle.

“This isn’t your house.” Michael puffed his cheeks out. David practically glided down onto the roof of the veranda beneath Michael, just outside his parent’s window.

“Why are you on grandpa’s roof?” David met Michael’s eye and tilted his head.

“This is just a dream Michael. I can fly too.” Michael gasped and looked back through the room for a moment. Maybe he actually fell asleep while he was lying down?

“Really? That’s so cool! I wanna fly!” Michael bounced slightly. The old springs of the bed creaked beneath him.

David looked at Michael for a moment then smiled brightly.

“Well come on then,” he held a hand out and Michael took it while he climbed out the window. “Hold on tight now,”

At first it felt like he was simply floating. Michael’s feet left the roof so gently that he didn’t really notice it until he caught the view of the tree tops out of the corner of his eye. He was far too distracted by the soft happy expression on David’s face and the look of moonlight on his skin. But then David took Michael’s other hand and pointed out the town and other random places to Michael as they drifted through the sky. Eventually they settled on a tall tree just on the outskirts of town, just far enough to not really be bothered by the smog.

“We’re leaving in two days.” Michael didn’t want to ruin the comfortable silence he found himself in but he really wanted to tell David. Even though this was only a dream…

“That so?” Michael nodded.

“I don’t really want to, it’s really nice here. But I kinda miss my friends.” David nodded. “I was hoping I’d get to see you one last time or even meet your brothers since you got to meet Sam.” David hummed.

“We’ll see. I don’t know if you’re mother would approve of us all that much to be honest.”

“Why?” Michael finally looked away from the town and back towards David. “She looked like she liked you a lot the other night.” David shrugged.

“She was mad that I gave you that knife. Plus, I know I’m all sweet and charming, but those boys can be animals sometimes. I doubt I could get them to put on the charm just for her and trying to force them to behave sometimes just causes problems and attitudes.”

“Oh,” Michael glanced at the ground and felt a wave of vertigo wash over him. David put a hand on his shoulder to steady him.

“We’re kinda like one of those rowdy gangs parents don’t approve of.” Ok, that made more sense.

“A gang?” David nodded. “What’s your gang’s name?” Michael remembering hearing about some gangs. Bloods and Crypts, Hells Angels, Timmy Morton and his dumb friends that just graduated last year.

“Name?” David waggled his head. “You know, I don’t think we ever bothered to give ourselves a name.” Michael wiggled on the branch.

“Oh! We should totally think of a name! What’s a cool gang without a proper name?” David chuckled and continued to hold Michael’s shoulder, making sure the boy didn’t accidentally topple himself out of the tree.

“Alright Michael, what do you think we should call ourselves?” Michael bit his lip as he thought about it.

David was cool, wore leather and black, and seemed pretty smart too. But these things didn’t actually lend themselves to be helpful in picking out a name and it didn’t help that Michael didn’t know anything about the other boys. But David did say that he’s the oldest, being only seventeen. Clearly he had to be the leader of the group, and he flew Michael around effortlessly. Before they came out to California Lucy showed Michael the movie Peter Pan and after mulling over tonight’s antics Michael felt like he knew a pretty good name.

“What about Lost Boys?”

“The Lost Boys?” Michael nodded.

“Like Peter Pan and the Lost Boys.” David was quiet for a moment before he broke out into a laugh so hard that he even felt the need to slap his thigh.

“That’s a great name Michael!” Michael smiled.

“Really?” David eagerly shook his head.

“Totally! I think they’ll like it too!”

“Awesome!”

Michael surveyed the scenery whilst David continued to snicker beside him.

“What’s it like, being in a gang?” David’s laughter ebbed away as he mulled over how he wanted to answer Michael.

“Well… every gang is different. We’re not really related by blood, but we’re still brothers, and that’s kind of really cool because we chose each other.” Michael didn’t really understand, but he nodded. “It’s like we have this… special connection. We’re always looking out for one another, even when we’re being assholes or annoying on purpose.” And that Michael did kind of understand.

Sometimes Sammy irritated him, really got on his nerves, but Michael still loved him. If anything Michael cared about Sammy more now than ever. His determination to be a good older brother and protect his younger one had only grown over the past few days. His mother said that he had a newfound protective streak a mile wide, but someone other than his mother had to, needed to. Michael knew his father probably wouldn’t be there enough for Sammy which meant the job was left to himself.

“What if you can’t protect them all the time?” David stared Michael down and for a moment Michael wondered if David knew exactly what he had been thinking.

“Well we all are fighters. We can do a pretty good job defending ourselves, although sometimes the extra help is nice.” Michael nodded. “You can’t always be there for Sam, even if you try really hard Michael, and someday you’ll have to let go of him and trust that he’ll be ok without you.” And wasn’t that a bitter pill to swallow?

When would that day come? Days? Months? Years? What if Sam was never ready to be without Michael?

“Michael,” a hand brushed through Michael’s hair and drew his attention back away from his own thoughts. “If you’re that worried about Sam, look into getting him a dog when he’s old enough. They’re supposed to be good for teaching responsibility or some shit like that, get one that’d be a good guard dog too.” Michael tilted his head.

“What kind of dog would be good for something like that?” He’d heard of service dogs before and if they had a guard dog then mom would have some extra protection too. That would make Michael feel a lot better about when he wouldn’t be able to be there for his family.

“Well, my dad has this husky though that dog’s like crazy protective. Kind of a jerk actually.” David sniffled and frowned.

“You don’t like dogs?”

“More like they don’t like me.” Michael laughed.

Michael felt drowsy but held on for as long as possible, continuing to chat it up with David as much as he could. Then one moment Michael felt the heaviness of his eyelids wearing down on him and the next he was cradled into David’s chest. They flew slowly over the landscape, taking in the fresh air.

“David? Can I join the Lost Boys too?” Michael wondered if David’s chest really did just let out a happy rumble.

“Sure thing Michael. One day when you’re big enough, come back and you can join us. Learn to ride a bike and we can go for rides and have fun every night, whenever you want, and we can go out and fly too whenever you feel like it.”

“I really liked flying.” Michael nodded. His eyes slid shut and he breathed in softly.

David stopped at the open window of the guest bedroom. Grandfather still passed out on the couch downstairs, Sam still sleeping soundly in his crib, and Michael only minutes away from passing out for the rest of the night. David gently put Michael down on the roof in front of the window and helped him climb back in. Their eyes met one final time.

“Come back some day. You’ll think I was just some dream, you’ll barely be able to remember this vacation, but some day you’ll be back here. And we’ll be waiting Michael.”

David brushed Michael’s hair aside as he hypnotized the boy. It hurt to do this, but it’d be better if Michael didn’t fully remember David. Just enough to draw him back.

“Goodnight David.” Michael muttered.

“Goodnight Michael.”

 

~~~~~

 

12 years later - 1987

 

Michael couldn’t really explain it, but the moment Lucy sat him and Sam both down to talk about the divorce he began to feel elated. She mentioned how she spoke with Grandpa about it and he invited them to come live with him in Santa Carla and the excitement began to bubble over. They made the drive and as they got closer to Grandpa and Santa Carla, Michael could feel something pulling at him. Like a sweet sigh followed by a whisper of “ _finally_.”

He saw the girl at the concert, soft face and softer skin reflecting the light of the torches as she slowly rocked to the music. Something about her told him to “ _follow_ ” and he happily obliged.

Follow, follow, almost there. She’ll lead you to it, just follow her.

And then he saw those blue eyes. Pale blonde hair and paler skin. An alluring smirk bursting fourth and Michael couldn’t bring himself to look away. It had been far too long.

Far too long since what?

He watched the gang drive off on their motorcycles and for a moment Michael thought he heard an echo in his mind, like a soft whisper of a memory from when he was a child. But how could that be? That was just a dream?

“Looks like she stiffed ‘ya.” He could hear the laughter in Sammy’s voice, but he didn’t really care about that.

Not many people knew, but Michael had always been a Lost Boy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Through the years Michael's had a couple of moments where he felt oddly compelled to do certain things. Though he could never TRULY place his finger on what his compulsion was and where it came from.
> 
> David's waiting patiently, this wasn't something he could rush after all. Time moved for no man nor monster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly can't think of how'd I'd write out/change the events from the movie to fit into this universe. At least not in any meaningful way that I haven't already read multiple times (and I love every one of those stories, don't get me wrong). But I realized that there's still quite a lot of time to fill in the gaps for Michael's growth into who he is as an 18 year old.
> 
> Also, I legit can't decide whether I'd like Sam to have a bigger part with the Lost Boys than he did originally. I feel like it really wouldn't work in the long run, but I also don't like the idea of Michael 100% abandoning his family so Sam might be like honorary little human brother than the vampires picked on occasionally whilst keeping an eye out for the kid. Michael would get upset if anything seriously bad happened to him after all. Even if you loose your humanity, you don't just stop caring about the things you had spent a good portion of your human life obsessing over.
> 
> M # S # - indicator of Michael and Sam's respective ages for timeline's sake.

Phoenix, Arizona - 1979

M 10 S 6

 

Michael watched the group of boys playing baseball off in the distance. Sammy and Lucy laughed off to the side as the young boy ran about the play set, climbing, diving, and swinging as much as he could be bothered. Michael liked to play with him like that sometimes, but nowadays it just didn’t seem as fulfilling.

Last week they began to play baseball in class and Michael really liked it. A few weeks before that they did kickball. And according to the teacher, next would be volleyball. When they ran the mile Michael liked as fast as he could because then he could close his eyes and pretend that he was flying. When they went on long walking trips Michael enjoyed exploring and taking in all the sights and smells. If there was a big rock, you could bet Michael was going to try and climb it. Cool looking trees too.

Michael was growing restless with age.

Lucy looked over at Michael while Sam climbed back up to go down a slide. She knew how athletic Michael had become over the past few years. She knew how active and free Michael liked to be. But she just didn’t know if she they had enough money to enroll him in any sporting groups or extra curricular activities. Perhaps she could get her husband to take Michael out to play, at least for now…

At least until Michael gets to a school that has their own proper team.

 

~~~~~

 

Santa Carla, California - 1980

M 11 S 7

 

“Come on Michael!” Sam breathed heavily as he darted between a pair of legs.

“Watch it idiot!” Michael called back to Sam as the smaller boy nearly collided with another person.

They jumped into the line and panted. Small smiles eating away at their faces while random adults barely spared the two children a glance. This wasn’t entirely unusual.

“Oh my god this is gonna be so cool!” Sam rocked back and forth. Michael pulled Sammy’s hood up over his head.

“You act like you’ve never been on a ride before.”

“Well YEAH we’ve ridden some rides, but not THIS ONE.” Michael rolled his eyes. Sam was acting like Santa Carla’s rides were so different from the few carnivals they’ve gone to but they really weren’t.

Dad had been getting testy again the past few months. After a particularly bad argument between him and Lucy, Lucy decided to take the boys on vacation to visit their grandfather. Michael couldn’t really remember the last time he supposedly met the man and he quickly lied and backpedaled once he told mom that. She looked so sad and upset, almost like she was pitying Michael. Said he must have blocked out he last vacation because of what happened.

That made absolutely no sense to Michael. But whatever. He hated it when mom got all teary-eyed and upset. Dad already made her upset so often, Michael really didn't want to add to that. He just wanted her to be happy.

They got off the ride andlooked around once more. Lucy said they could go off on their own for a little while so long as they didn’t split up and Michael was intent on keeping an eye on his little brother no matter what. Some kind of paranoia told him that if he even looked away or let go of Sammy for long enough then something bad would happen to him.

“Sammy,” Michael grabbed onto his brother’s collar as the boy began to dart off once more like an over-excited puppy. “Stop running off you brat!”

“Michael look!” Sam pointed. “They’ve got a comic book store here!” And ok, Michael really didn’t care about comic books, but Sam would be pissy if he didn’t at least get to take a small look.

They walked in and Sam looked around some of the boxes of comics before finally pulling one out and holding it up to Michael.

“Look Michael! Can I get it? Can I? Can I?” Michael wanted to yell at Sammy, tell him he’s got enough, but he just couldn’t bring himself to when Sammy had that look on his face.

He touched the money in his pockets and sighed. He had been planning on getting mom something but he might not have enough cash for both. But he could at least use this as a bargaining chip against Sam if he started misbehaving during the trip.

“Go see how much they’ll charge us for it.”

Michael wondered if he was being too easy on Sam. He bought his little brother the comic and hoped that he’d have just enough cash left over to buy Lucy something. Sam took Michael’s hand as he led his little brother through the throngs of people.

“Hey watch it!” Some jock looking jerk shoved Michael and Sam aside with one push.

“You watch it!” Sam yelled back. He nearly dropped his comic when he stumbled.

But apparently that was a bad thing to do. Maybe some day Sammy would learn, but today he felt the fear crawl into his throat as the buff teenager turned back on them and glared at the two little boys.

“You got something to say?” He leered down at them.

Michael pushed Sam back behind him, ready to tell him to run. Sammy might be able to dart through all of the crowd’s legs effortlessly, fast little bastard, but Michael might have a harder time at it. There’s no way Michael was going to fight this dude, not without getting beaten. So it’d be better to at least try and run away.

“Buzz off jockstrap.” Michael bit back at the man. Just because he knew he couldn’t take him didn’t mean he was about to let the man be an asshole to him and his little brother.

Michael was about to push Sammy away when another hand snuck out and snatched the comic from Sam’s hands.

“Look at this Tony, little fuckin’ nerd.” Two more men rounded behind Michael and Sam, one of which held up the comic out to the first jerk.

“Hey!” Sammy cried out, reaching up with a jump for it.

“That’s not yours!” Michael went to snatch the comic book but the man backed up and with a twist of his hands the comic was torn.

“No!” Michael didn’t have to look at Sammy to know he was starting to cry.

Michael curled his fingers into a fist but before he could let a fist fly a new voice broke into the fray.

“Now boys, that wasn’t very nice.” For a moment it was like Michael’s brain went fuzzy. Why was that voice so familiar? “You should apologize.” Michael saw the look of fear leek onto the main jerk’s face as a cold hand reached down to pat Michael’s shoulder.

Two blondes in leather showed up flanking that jerk and out of the corner of Michael’s eyes he could see his two friends back away. Sammy clung to his hand and arm, shoving his head into Michael’s shoulder. Michael finally looked up and his ability to process thought stuttered as his eyes landed on the tall blonde with blue eyes and black leather standing next to him.

“We didn’t mean any trouble man!” one of the jerk’s friends stuttered. He flinched away from a fourth leather clad teenager.

“Awwwww, they didn’t mean nothin’ by it!” the shortest blonde in the group decked out in a colorful jacket snickered. The other one standing alongside the short blonde let out a loud laugh.

“Nothin?” he called.

“Nothing!” the short one echoed again.

The duo got closer to the jerk as they echoed back and forth their little banter. The jerk actually seemed to shrink in on himself as they approached and Michael wondered if he should feel bad for the guy. Well, he would have if his brain wasn’t still struggling to process the situation.

The one with his hand on Michael’s shoulder scoffed.

“We’ll deal with you later. Scram!” The three jerks turned and ran away. The one being flanked by blondes let out a screech and ran off to the side, following one of his friends.

Sam took a step forward, his eyes trailing after the torn comic as it fell to the floor. Michael let out a tired sigh as Sam let go to pick it up, staring forlornly at it and letting his head drop.

“I’m sorry Michael.” Michael shook his head. He almost forgot about the hand on his shoulder until it removed itself. Michael kept himself from shooting the strangers another look just yet.

“What are you sorry for? That was your comic.” Sam held up the pieces together as if they could magically be put back together.

“But that was your chore money.” Michael shrugged.

“So? There’ll be more chores. But I’m not getting you another comic, you’re going to have to wait for that one.” Perhaps if Michael and Sam had been paying these new strangers any mind they would have noticed the silent conversation they were all having. “Oh,” he looked back up at them again, looking at the familiar blonde last. “Thanks for helping.” he rubbed his head sheepishly, trying to conceal his uncertainty about these new people.

“Ehhhh no problem!” the tall rocker looking blonde slurred out.

“Tormenting people is what I live for.” the shorter bedazzled one admitted with a wink. He bit into a finger of his glove. Michael and Sam could see the holes in many of the other ones.

“They didn’t hurt you, did they?” the familiar blonde asked. Michael shook his head.

“Um, no we’re good.” the familiar stranger seemed pleased.

“Good good. Can’t stand assholes picking on kids.” the other blondes snickered like he said a joke. “I’m David,” he held out a hand and Michael hesitantly shook it. “The colorful one is Marko, Paul’s next to him. And that one’s Dwayne.” he pointed to the quiet brunette behind Sam. He was looking over Sammy’s shoulder at the comic as though he were actually interested in it.

“Oh, I’m Michael and this is Sam.” Michael introduced himself and his brother. Sam shyly waved at the strangers. It seemed like the little brother was torn between cowering next to Michael and mourning his comic. Michael felt a little bad about it, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it now. “Anyhow,” he began but was cut off.

“Lets get you a new one.” the silent man, Dwayne, tapped Sammy’s shoulder and pointed at the comic book shop. Michael did a double take.

“Um, that’s…” Michael stuttered.

“We don’t have any more cash.” Sam mumbled but the man seemed to hear him anyhow.

“Don’t worry about it.” Dwayne led the way back towards the comic book store. Michael hesitated to follow but a hand nudged him forward.

Michael watched while the duo leafed through comics. Occasionally Dwayne would ask Sam questions about the things he read and what he’d be willing to read. Finally the two had picked out ten comics, five each, and headed up to the cash register.

“Dwayne-y really likes to read.” Marko’s tone made it sound like he was making fun of his friend.

“He tries to get us to read every now and then but usually we just convince him to tell us the gist of what he’s read instead.” David added in.

“I like it when he reads to me.” Paul sounded subdued, like he was thinking about the last time he listened to Dwayne as he read aloud. “It’s kinda trippy listening to it while you’re high.”

“You’re always high.” Marko snipped.

“And you’re always an ass!” Michael refrained from chuckling at them although he couldn’t hide the bemused smile.

“They’re always like this.” David sighed as the pair began to shove and argue with one another. “Actually, this is pretty calm for them.” Michael watched the pair.

“Wow, wonder what they must be like when they’re out of control.” A flash of fear flickered through him when the arguing pair turned to look at him. A gleam of mischief was clearly directed at him as smirks drifted onto their faces.

“Knock it off.” David groaned at them. They pouted and turned away.

“Anything else you wanted to look at?” Dwayne’s voice didn’t wash away the hint of worry Michael felt in regards to Marko and Paul.

“Um, not really. We were just gonna look around a little bit to see if there was anything we could get mom before we had to meet up with her again.”

Michael saw how David and Dwayne shared a look amongst each other before looking off towards Paul and Marko.

“What kind of stuff does your mom like?” Michael paused and thought about it. He initially was planning on just looking around in general to see if anything caught his eye but now he knew he’d have to have something a little more solid.

“Maybe a necklace or something. I don’t think dads given her any in a really long time.”

“Yeaaahhh!” Paul’s cheer spilt into their ears. “That’s brilliant! Chicks DIG the jewelry!” Michael raised his eyebrows at Paul.

“Dude, that’s our mom.” Sam muttered, clearly unimpressed.

“Even better! Little momma’s are the best!” Dwayne smacked Paul upside the head and grabbed one of his arms. He grabbed Marko’s other arm as well and began to drag them away.

“Well, why don’t we go take a look around? I know the perfect place!” David nudged Michael and Sam off to a different store.

David and the others picked through the store with Michael and Sam. Well, Paul and Marko pestered everyone for attention while David helped Michael look. Sam cowered occasionally and Dwayne did what he could to keep the other blondes in line.

“I like both.” Sam said looking between the two. Michael bit at his lip. He could only afford either the necklace or the bracelet, not both.

“Same.” David snatched them out of Michael’s hands and disappeared.

“Ah! Wait David!” Michael went after the elder boy.

Michael stumbled back when Marko and Paul fell into a wrestling match and cut him off. He had to go around them and by the time he found David he already ripped off the price tags and had the jewelry in a bag. David passed it off with a smirk to Michael with no word.

“B-but,” Michael looked down at the gift. Why would David buy this for him. “I don’t have a way to pay you back.” Michael frowned.

David pat Michael on the head and ruffled his hair with an affectionate chuckle rumbling through his chest. Michael looked him in the eyes and the worry melted away. He barely even noticed Sammy tugging on his sleeve.

“I wasn’t expecting you to pay me back. Now run off and go find Lucy before she starts worrying.” Michael nodded and took Sammy’s hand as they darted out of the store with their prizes.

“Hey Michael?”

“Yeah Sammy?”

“Did we ever tell him mom’s name?” Michael frowned as he tried to remember.

Honestly, ever since they came on the scene it was like his mind got a little fuzzy, he found it hard to truly keep track of everything. All of his attention wanted to focus on David. So he couldn’t really say whether or not he told David their mother’s name.

“I…don’t know. Maybe I said it at some point?” Sammy frowned but didn’t say anything more.

Later on when Lucy asked Michael and Sam how much money they spent they decided to lie and say that there was a sale and the comics were cheap. Plus, Michael had more in his savings than they remembered. Neither of them knew how to feel about the gang they supposedly made friends with, and they weren’t sure Lucy would feel happy knowing about what happened earlier. So why give her unnecessary stress?

She loved the jewelry though and put it on immediately. And Sammy loved his comics. Both the super hero ones, and the ones about a man from Alaska and a Giant Polar bear. He absolutely loved the name Nanook.

 

~~~~~

 

“Man that took longer than I thought!” Marko dragged behind David just enough to remain out of arms reach. “Why were we doing that again?”

“Doing what?” Paul asked as he staggered through the throngs of people, eyeing his preferred target for the night.

“When?” Dwayne mumbled.

“Earlier.” David explained.

“What were we doing earlier?” Paul asked. Marko scoffed.

“I hate you guys.” he whined. The others laughed.

“Soooo are we gonna do it? He’s like what? Fifteen?” Paul bounced with each step.

“He’s only eleven at most.” David pulled a face. “That’s still too young.” Marko snickered.

“I bet he wants Michael to be older than he was when he died.” Marko suggested.

“I never knew you were into older men David!” Paul called after David. David rolled his eyes and pulled off towards their bikes.

“So I kinda get the whole buying comics things. But jewelry?” Marko bounded onto his bike.

“It’s like he’s trying to get on Little Momma’s good side even though none of them are going to remember it.”

David ignored the boys and refused to think about it. He didn’t need to. Right now these things were probably important to Michael and David liked seeing Michael happy. One day he wouldn’t have his human family any more but having good memories with them would soften the blow.

Or maybe it would just make letting them go all the more difficult?

Fuck humans were complicated.

 

~~~~~

Phoenix, Arizona -1981

M 12 S 8

 

Michael grunts as he hauls the final trash bag into the dumpster. He rubbed the muck off onto his jeans and jogs back into the house once more, ignoring the musty smell as he looks around for anything. Finally, Michael walks into the kitchen.

“I got all of the trash Mrs. Potts.” the elderly woman gasped and turned, momentarily pausing in her efforts to clean the dishes from lunch. “Was there anything else you needed me to do today? I saw your gutters are getting a little full.”

“Oh heavens no, Michael. I couldn’t make you climb all the way up there just to clean out a little bit of debris, it’s too dangerous.”

Michael frowned. Damn. That was extra cash he really could have used.

“Tell you what,” Mrs. Potts continued. “Help me dry these dishes and then I’ll need you to take something upstairs for me.”

“Ok!” Michael jumped right in with a towel and a smile. Mrs. Potts was a chatty woman, one not so inclined to let too much time to go by in silence. But when you spent so much time alone you had to take advantage of every moment you could.

“So what are you planning on using your money for anyway?” she began. “You never did get around to telling me.” Michael nodded.

“I’ve been saving up from all the chores I do. Mom said we don’t have enough cash to do it just yet, but once I get enough I’m gonna get Sammy a dog.”

“You’re getting your little brother a dog and not one for yourself?” Mrs. Potts rose an eyebrow, that was a rather odd thing for a pre-teen boy to want. Michael shrugged.

“Well I had been thinking for a while now. Dad’s really not home all that often and when he is he’s pretty moody. The dog would be for mom too, something that could protect them if anything ever happens. Plus I heard that having a dog is good for teaching responsibility.” Michael focused on drying off a bowl, never noticing the look Mrs. Potts shot him as she contemplated something.

“That’s a very good point.” she drawled, a little uncertain but not quite ready to bother Michael more about it. Instead, she was forming an idea. “What kind of dog were you thinking of getting?” Michael put the bowl off to the side as he grabbed the next plate.

“A husky would be cool.” Mrs. Potts nodded.

Once they finished wiping down everything Mrs. Potts gave Michael a hamper to take up to her bedroom. After that she gave him a small wad of cash and a pat on the shoulder.

“Tell Lucy I said hello and that I might call her later on tonight.” Michael nodded.

“Ok, will do!”

Three weeks later Michael and Sam got off the bus and made the short walk home. Ever since Michael landed a nice hook on some bullies eye no one bothered the duo anymore. Well, maybe Sam was bothered a little, but many feared Michael’s wrath whenever he found out about someone bugging his little bro.

Michael held open the front door for his little brother and froze when he heard small yips and howls, claws struggling against the tile, and Lucy’s laughter. Sam squealed with delight and the dog howled and whimpered and whined. Michael shrugged off his backpack as he closed the door behind him and walked into the kitchen in a daze. Sam’s face was being licked off by an overexcited puppy while Lucy and Mrs. Potts watched on with joy.

“Surprise!” the duo shouted.

“It’s no husky, but I figured an alaskan malamute would be close enough.” Mrs. Potts admitted as Michael stared on in shock.

“Can I name him!” Sam shouted as he hugged the waggling dog.

“Yeah Sammy, you can pick the name.” a smile slowly formed over Michael’s face as he settled down next to the two and pet the puppy.

“I wanna call him Nanook!” Lucy laughed.

“Nanook?” Mrs. Potts looked surprised. “That’s an interesting name! Where did you learn of a name like that?” Sammy and Michael paused and looked at once another.

They both remember it from somewhere. But where?

“Oh I bet Sam read it from one of his comics or something. He reads a lot of those.” Lucy suggested and yeah. That did sound right.

“I think it was something from I comic I read a while ago…. Something about a man and a polar bear?” Michael wasn’t sure but that was probably it.

Michael felt giddy as he watched the two. Part of him felt relieved to finally have a dog in the family. But they still had training to do before they could consider Nanook a proper guard dog.

 

~~~~~

 

Phoenix, Arizona - 1983

M 14 S 10

 

“Come on Nanook!” Sammy yelled as he and Michael took off running across the field.

Michael let the two have a head start before he followed after. Darting with a smirk and a laugh as he quickly caught up to his smaller brother just as he tossed the frisbee. Michael chased after it and Nanook even though the dog was faster than him. Nanook caught the frisbee and evaded Michael whom tried to snag it from his mouth. He returned it to Sam whom tossed it to the side of Michael, forcing him to run after the frisbee again only this time he caught it before Nanook could.

“Sammy! Watch where you’re throwing it!” Michael hollered. He could barely hear Lucy laugh as she watch her sons playing from their picnic spot. Their dad sat and watched next to her, he kinda seemed a little bored but at least he was bothering to pretend today.

“Sorry Michael!” they continued to toss it back and forth, making Nanook run between them like a monkey in the middle. Occasionally Sam would throw badly just to mess with Michael until finally Nanook managed to grab it and run away.

“Darn it Sammy!” Michael chased after Nanook but the dog was too fast. Michael slipped and twisted and turned as he tried to catch the dog. “Nanook! Quit it!”

Now he could hear all three of his family members laughing at him and Michael decided to retaliate.

“Sammy this is your fault!” he laughed when Sammy let out a little shriek. Michael adjusted his path to run towards Sam instead of Nanook.

Sam turned and began to run away, yelling for help.

“Nanook! Get him! He’s gonna kill me! NANOOK!” the tired dog laid back down next to Lucy on the picnic blanket huffing and puffing. She laughed and petted the dog. “NOOOO!”

Michael wrapped an arm around Sam’s shoulders and hauled him to the side, taking only an extra moment to re-adjust before he began to spin Sammy around.

“MICHAAAAEEEEL STOP!” Sam laughed and screeched. “You smell like a dog!” Michael stopped spinning to give him a noogie and howled.

It felt right.

 

~~~~~

 

Phoenix, Arizona - 1984

M 15 S 11

 

Michael knew this christmas was going to be a small one. Dad had been struggling at work for a while now and each year it felt like money had only been growing tighter. Michael still worked odd jobs and chores for people around the neighborhood and town, but only so much was available to a fifteen year old.

But he did it, he managed to get Sam that special shirt he had been eyeballing the past few weeks and mom had some nice new earrings to wear. He already talked to mom about how he didn’t need anything this year. He rather Sam and Nanook got gifts, to them the holidays should still be a special thing.

If Lucy told him that he should still find Christmas to be special as well, well, it would have gone completely over his head. When was the last time he had a great birthday with friends?When did he stop believing in santa? Everything magical in the world paled in comparison to his dreams and the reality that he was faced with sucked out the joy of many things. But he wasn’t about to let Sammy stop having his own fun.

Sammy deserved to have all of these things. Michael couldn’t bear to let him know just yet how hard the world really was.

“Here you go Michael,” Lucy smiled softly as she handed Michael a box. He already knew it was socks and underwear and other such things, but he still pretended to be excited when he opened it.

“Thanks mom.”

He knew she was trying her best. After the argument her and dad got into last night, it’s a miracle she wasn’t crying this morning. It was only her and the boys today. Supposedly dad had to go to work on Christmas day.

Sammy had already open his presents and was nose deep in a new comic.

“You have one more.” Lucy pointed. Michael frowned. He thought that was dad’s gift.

He grunted as he tried to drag the box out from underneath the tree. Why was it so heavy?

Michael peeled open the wrapping paper and gaped, opening the box and smiling when he saw it was for real. He looked back at Lucy and she shrugged.

“Your coach said it’d be a good idea to start bulking up too so I thought this might help you a little.”

Michael tested the weights. The middle weight, 15 pounds, seemed reasonable enough for a while.

“I also got a video guide on how to lift weights for different muscles.” Lucy said when Michael picked up the tape.

Michael frowned when he thought of something.

“How much did this cost?” Lucy waved her hands.

“Please Michael, don’t even worry about it.” Michael hesitantly nodded.

Michael and Sam fought over the television that night until Lucy finally cut in and forced the brothers to come to a consensus. Michael watched enough to learn some basics and then would practice those and Sam would pick a movie they could all watch together. It wasn’t a great compromise, but it would work for now.

Michael thought about looking into diets that would help him gain some muscle faster while the movie played.

 

~~~~~

 

Phoenix, Arizona - 1985

M 16 S 12

 

The crisp autumn air this evening was refreshing. For once it wasn’t crazy hot and Michael was more than thankful for it. Well, he wanted to be.

He kicked at a rock and watched it skitter down the sidewalk with a forlorn expression on his face. Right now he couldn’t be more than happy that Sammy had a playdate with one of his friends. Ok, so sleepover would be a better term, but Sam would always be that two year old to Michael, the one Michael watched while Sam slept in the crib and decided that he needed to be protected by all the evils their father never bothered to hide from them.

So what evil adult thing was it Michael was protecting Sam from? Well this time it was a particularly bad fight between their parents. Lucy was never all that inclined to yell, but tonight that’s what it came to. And to think, Michael was so excited to receive that dirt bike. It was like his father actually listened.

It was almost like he actually cared about his son.

Michael felt the prickle on the back on his neck as he focused on shoving down his frustration and tears. Lucy felt uncomfortable about giving Michael a bike to ride when he hadn’t even learned to drive a normal car, something that his father was supposed to have been working on with Michael and was yet again was left up to Lucy to take care of. But clearly his father heard Michael talking about how some of his friends go on rides on the hills and in the mountains, heard him talking about he would like to ride a bike instead.

But the problem was that Lucy didn’t know how to ride a bike and neither did his father. How could they teach Michael something they don’t know how to do, especially when they haven’t even covered basic car driving? Plus, bikes are super dangerous and Michael is only sixteen, why in the world would it be ok for a sixteen year old to drive a death trap like that to school?

The fight spit balled and Michael eventually vacated to his bedroom and later out the window when their argument turned into a shouting match.

He knew she had a point, but why couldn’t she just let Michael pretend for once? Pretend that he could actually learn something from his old man other than how to not be a jackass. Pretend that he was actually just a normal child with a father that loved him.

Michael wiped away the tears and walked into the park even though it had long since been vacated due to the lateness of the evening. Random poles along the street were still on but everything else along the walking path inside the park and along the picnic tables were off, and Michael took some comfort of sitting in the dark in silence. He sat down on an empty bench along the path and stared off into the shadows, not really seeing anything.

If he wanted to, he could pretend that it was actually comforting to be bathed in the dark of the night.

If Lucy ever found out he had snuck out of the house she’d be even more upset. Well. She’d either be upset that Michael thought it’d be ok to wander around outside so late OR she’d be upset that Michael had been practically chased out of the house by her fight.

What if dad got angry and decided to hit her?

Shit. He shouldn’t have left her there by herself.

Michael looked back at the street and steeled himself. He’d have to go back sooner rather than later, he didn’t want mom to discover he snuck out and what if she needed him? After all the sports and exercise and fights Michael got into his dad would be no match… maybe.

He sniffled and shook his head. Maybe he was worrying for nothing. Dad usually just stormed out of the house, slamming doors and chairs and other shit when he was angry. Realistically, this time would be the same. Plus, mom had Nanook and Nanook had already more than proven his ability to be a good guard dog.

Before Michael could decide on what to do he felt a cold breath on the back of his neck.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in bed or something, kid?” Michael jerked off of the bench and fell onto the floor as the other kid laughed loudly. “Relax, man.”

Michael felt entranced as he watched the leather clad blonde rest his arms lazily on the backside of the bench. He felt like he should remember this guy from somewhere. The blonde hair and blue eyes were definitely familiar. The voice too.

“The fuck dude.” Michael rubbed the back of his neck as he stood back up. He forced himself to look away, afraid his staring might be construed as something wrong. “What was that for?”

“You should really try to be more aware of your surroundings.” the kid responded, now mindlessly picking through a pack of peanuts and absentmindedly eating them. “There could be murderers out here hunting you.” Michael scoffed. “Peanut?” he held out the bag towards Michael.

“Um, no thanks.” Michael waved his hand. “And thanks… I guess.”

“David.” the kid said quickly.

“I’m Michael.” Michael wasn’t too sure about this kid but he just couldn’t ignore the nagging feeling in his head. This kid, David, had to remind him of someone or something.

David smiled.

“So tell me Michael,” David walked around the backside of the bench and sat down where Michael had been sitting. “What’s brought you out on this very night, seeking out the shadows for consulting?” Michael wrinkled his nose as he watched the kid, still unsure of him.

“Um, none of your business?” David nodded.

“Family troubles then. I gotcha. That’s why i’m here too. My dad’s being a huge ass and I thought I’d take a walk, get away for a while.” his smile turned sharp. “See about visiting some people.” Was this kid serious?

“Um,”

“Come, sit.”

David patted the bench next to himself. Michael wasn’t really in the mood to get into a fight right now so he obliged even though David refused to move over. It kinda forced Michael to sit closer to the boy than he would have liked to. But actually, it felt kind of nice to just sit and relax right now. It didn’t seem like David was going to judge Michael or be too big of a dick.

“So, what’s the stitch?” David asked suddenly.

“Nobody says that.” David scoffed.

“I was never one for keeping up with all the little colloquialisms society likes to use. Besides, it’ll be popular again eventually. Some random character will use it and people will start quoting them.” David shook his head. “Anyhow, stop avoiding my question.”

“I’m not about to go off on a tangent about my personal troubles to a complete stranger.” Michael felt a little snarky. This kid was kinda demanding.

“But we’re not strangers. You know my name and that i’m avoiding my family right now, so spill.” Michael tapped his thighs and ignored how David draped his arm over the back of the bench behind him.

Well, David didn’t need to know anything serious and he really had no right to judge Michael.

“My dad’s being an ass— well he’s always an ass. And he pissed off my mom real bad this time. Usually I can handle it but tonight they’re just so loud I can’t stand it.” David nodded.

“Is it just you?”

“Well, my little brother’s at a sleepover so he gets to avoid all this drama this time. Usually he just reads comics and I work out to ignore them and it’s fine.”

“But this time it’s not enough?” Michael nodded. David took another bite. “Hm, what are they fighting about this time that’s made it so bad?” the words slipped out of Michael’s mouth before he could remember his self-made promise to keep David mostly out of the loop. At this point it was like he couldn’t stop himself from answering David’s questions honestly.

“Dad got me a dirt bike like I had been talking about, but the problem is that neither he nor my mom know how to ride and they can’t teach me. Plus my mom’s really worried about how safe it’ll be amongst a load of other things. Like it’s so annoying, I get it, I really do…”

“But that bikes something you really wanted?” Michael nodded.

“I just wanted to go on rides with my friends.” David nodded.

“Well if you need someone to teach you there are plenty of people who could, i’m sure.” and that was a fair point. Andy’s dad was nice enough and he taught Andy when he was like fourteen so maybe he’d be ok with teaching Michael too. “I could teach you.”

What?

“What? You ride?” David nodded. He looked almost smug about it.

“Want proof?” Michael looked into David’s eyes and felt lost to the kid’s whims.

David took Michael’s arm and led him towards the parking lot of the park. One lone motorcycle stood waiting patiently for its rider to approach.

“Well, come on.” David hopped on. Michael snapped out of his trance.

“Wait, you want me to ride with you?” David smirked.

“Well duh. Can’t really show you if you’re not riding with me.”

“I thought you meant like watch you ride down the road or something.” Michael really didn’t want to ride bitch seat with a guy he just met. David laughed.

“No Michael. You don’t really get to full effect that way.” David jerked his head to indicate Michael get on. “You’ll like it, it’s like flying.”

And yeah that really did sound appealing. His friends that rode said the same thing, especially when they were doing jumps.

“Fine,” Michael tried to sound irritated about it. He sat down and David shook his head.

“Come on now, you’re gonna fall off if you don’t hold on.” Hesitantly Michael reached around David’s waist. David nodded and Michael could see the smile on the kid’s face. “Don’t let go!” and off they went.

David might have started slow but as soon as he pulled onto the main road all bets were off. Michael squealed at first and tightened his grip on David, unintentionally pulling himself closer to the other and momentarily closing his eyes. But after a few minutes he opened his eyes and leaned back, looking around and enjoying the sensation of wind brushing through his curly hair and smacking his face.

David let out a howl in front of him and Michael joined in on the rush. Tilting his head back as they both let it out. Michael’s heart beat heavily in his chest and he laughed, it really was like flying.

Since they were already in the suburbs it was a quick trip away from all the street lights and city and out into the open wild roads. Michael lost track of time but eventually David slowed to a stop on a hill off the main road and turned towards Michael.

“Well?” Michael laughed and shook his head.

“Yeah, you definitely know how to drive!” David smiled brightly and settled his bike on the stand before nudging Michael off. They both sat on the dirt ground to look up at the stars. Once more it was David whom broke the silence.

“Do you want to get away from it Michael?”

“Huh?” Michael looked away from the stars and felt the breath leave his chest. David had been watching him instead.

“I mean, don’t you want to just leave it all behind sometimes? Shitty parents and annoying siblings and bad times?” Michael snorted.

“You mean like run away?” David rolled his head back and forth.

“I mean like a Peter Pan thing.” Michael chuckled.

“Dude, only girls fantasize about that kind of thing.”

“So is that a no?” Michael ran a hand through his hair.

“I don’t know. Maybe?” Michael thought about it and shook his head. “No, I don’t think I could do something like that. I mean, I can’t wait for the day I don’t have to put up with my old man’s shit anymore, but mom still wants to try and work it out. And as irritating as my old man is, I can’t just leave her and Sammy behind. Not when they still need me.” David nodded and leaned back on his hands. He seemed a little disappointed.

“That’s fair. But you know, you can’t take care of them forever. So what would you need in order to feel ok leaving them behind?” Michael chewed his lip.

“It’s mostly my old man that I can’t stand.”

“So if he died?”

“WHAT?” David held up his hands in surrender. “No. He’s a jackass but I wouldn’t put a hit on him just to be free of him. I just don’t want mom and Sam to be stuck dealing with him. I’d like for them to be somewhere reasonably stable that I don’t have to worry about them having food on the table.” David watched Michael with a curious expression on his face.

“That’s a pretty adult thing to think.” He muttered. “Dude, how old are you?”

“Sixteen.” David whistled.

“Me too and like I have to take care of my brothers but shit dude. You got a lot on your plate. You ever think that all of those things aren’t really your responsibility?” Michael scoffed.

“Mom keeps lecturing me about being too mature for my age too.” he grumbled. “Look, it’s not like I like it. I’m getting kinda tired of this bullshit, but right now I just wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving them in a place like that. Maybe when i’m eighteen it’ll be fine.”

David watched Michael a little bit longer before turning his eyes out across the horizon. Now he really looked disappointed, accepting but disappointed.

“I guess that’s fair.” they sat for a little while longer before David let out a sigh and stood up. “Come on princess, lets get you back to your castle.” Michael ignored the hand and got up on his own.

“Oh my prince in black leather!” Michael snarked. They shared a smile and a laugh and this time Michael didn’t complain about taking bitch seat.

The ride back to the park seemed a lot faster than the drive away and Michael felt a little disappointed when he got off of the bike once more. He looked out across the dark park and realized that this entire night had ended up being about Michael. Although David was the first to share information about himself, in the end he didn’t give Michael anything substantial. Instead he had focused the efforts of his night to help make Michael feel better and now Michael felt a little guilty.

“Hey,” Michael turned and caught himself looking straight into David’s eyes once more. He felt like he was being pulled into another trance, falling deep into them while David spoke.

“Don’t worry about learning how to ride. I’m sure one of your friends can teach you, just make sure you’re careful. I would hate to find you with broken bones or worse…” David ran a hand through Michael’s hair, never taking his eyes off of him. “I don’t mind waiting a little bit Michael, just don’t keep me waiting for too much longer ok? The next time we meet, I hope you’ll be ready.”

David gently pulled Michael in and brushed their lips together. Michael closed his eyes as they kissed and once he opened them again David was gone. He awoke from his trance confused and looked around.

“Was I just talking to someone?” Michael struggled to remember what he had been doing the past few hours instead of moping but all he could think of was a vague plan.

He’d go home, talk to his mom and come to a compromise about the bike. He’d talk to his friends about teaching him how to ride safely. And his dad, well his dad could fuck off for all he cared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After writing this chapter I realized I wanted more solid characterization for the Lost Boys. The movie really doesn't lend a significant amount to it and the rest seems to be fandom characterization, which is fine, but it's a lot more difficult to write consistent character when you have no guide to go off of.
> 
> I also wanted David's personality towards Michael to slightly shift over time into the one we're more familiar with. Not because he's being fake or anything, but because you don't talk to everyone of every age the same. Especially if you're a predator skilled at hunting prey in multiple ways shapes and form as a type of game because sometimes you just gotta keep shit fresh.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you see a shadow moving in the woods at night is someone there?  
> If you see signs of mind-wipes but don't know about them, has their memories been erased?  
> In a world full of vampires, what else could possibly exist?
> 
> Sometimes hindsight can be a bit of a bitch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wanted to make sure this chapter was good considering it's not really touching upon the events of the movie just yet. But it was a part of the story I really wanted to tell, scenes I thought might be particularly interesting to take note of. IDK maybe it's not all that interesting since half of this is still technically a plot bunny, but sometimes I feel that plot bunnies can be good if they're done well.

Phoenix, Arizona - 1977

Michael 8 Sam 4

 

Lucy hanged up the phone and sighed heavily. Rob’s having another late night at the office but she knows he’s probably yucking it up with his friends in some bar somewhere. He’s not high up enough in his office to really warrant him staying late as often as he is, especially since there’s no promotion available currently.

Sometimes she wonders if perhaps this life is all wrong for him.

It was only what? Seven years ago now he got that job?

Before that they were living out of a truck, soaking up the sun and enjoying the free love and peace movement. They were as free as can be, but then reality crashed down hard and Lucy put her foot down. Michael would need structure, they all did. But just because they had to adopt some habits of normal suburban life didn’t mean they were giving up on their own beliefs. It didn’t mean that they weren’t who they used to be anymore.

Unfortunately Lucy came to realize that while she wasn’t that same fun-loving twenty-something with a whole lot to prove, her husband 100% still wanted to be that person.

And it hurt. It hurt to grow and change with a partner only to find that you’ve been alone all along. That after all is said and done, you were forced to take on everything you once rebelled against and now you’re doing it practically alone. The man who once said he’d be by your side and promised to help you figure things out lied.

He lied.

And while the bitterness threatens to swallow you whole, he sneaks off to practice his fucking free love.

“Mom?” Lucy sniffed and wiped her eyes before turning towards the doorway with a smile.

“Michael, what are you doing up honey?” Michael let out a heavy yawn and shrugged.

“I just wanted to get some water.” Lucy softly sighed and went to grab him a glass. When she turned back she saw Michael sitting at the table staring off into space.

“Sweetie? What’s wrong?” She placed the cup down in front of Michael and sat down in the seat next to him. She brushed aside his hair and waited patiently whilst Michael took a drink.

“Nothing.” Michael shrugs. “I was just thinking.”

“About what?” Michael stares at his cup.

“I don’t really remember.” he admitted. “I think my dream was a little weird.” Lucy nodded.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Michael tilted his head back and forth.

“I was waiting in a room with Sammy. He was sleeping in his crib and I was waiting for you. But then peter pan came and we went on a whole lot of adventures.” Lucy nodded.

“That actually reminds me of when we went to visit grandpa.” she giggled. “Your father and I went out on a date and you and Sammy spent the night with grandpa. When we came home you were fast asleep on our bed and when I woke you up you asked me if you could go play with the lost boys.”

Lucy hesitated to continue when she saw the creeping frown on Michael’s face.

“I don’t remember that.”

“That’s ok, I can hardly remember things that happen when I wake up for only a minute or two. One time I,”

“No. Not that.” Michael cut her off. “I…when did we visit grandpa?” For a moment Lucy felt her stomach drop.

“We went when you were six, that was two years ago.” Michael didn’t look like he remembered yet so Lucy pressed on. “You went to the boardwalk with your father…. You made a new friend. I met him when we went to go see the fireworks show. Don’t you remember? We wanted to see if Sammy would react badly to the noise but he absolutely loved it.” Michael shook his head after thinking about it.

“I don’t… I don’t remember any of that…” Lucy took a slow deep breath.

How could Michael not remember? He spent a majority of their trip to the zoo talking about David. If Lucy had to guess, David was probably Michael’s favorite thing about that entire trip, so how could he forget?

“I..uh…” Michael watched her patiently. Confusion light up his face as he continued to ponder it.

But Michael did nearly get kidnapped on that trip. Lucy never did get the full story. Maybe it was a lot more terrifying than she was initially led to believe. Maybe Michael was so scared that after they left California he did everything he could to forget about it. What else could explain such a phenomena?

“It’s ok sweetie.” She brushed his hair aside once more but now it was more to comfort herself than him. “It wasn’t that great of a trip and it was so long ago. Don’t worry about remembering it.”

Lucy made Michael use the bathroom before sending him back to bed. She paced the living room for almost an hour before heading upstairs and peeking into his bedroom. Just barely she could hear him softly breathing, already asleep.

She closed the door as quietly as she could. Tears began to stream down her face.

It was moments like these that made her really hate Robert.

 

~~~~~

 

 

Santa Carla, California - 1980

Michael 11 Sam 7

 

Lucy didn't want to bite at her nails. She didn’t want to fold her arms across herself and stalk through the crowds like a worried mother hunting for her children. She especially didn’t want to be overbearing.

A helicopter mother.

She took her lemonade and sat down at a bench along the rails. Her feet hurt anyhow, those boys sure did like to run her ragged, and she needed a break.

The boys should be back in half an hour or so like they promised. Michael was more than apt to listen to his mother, follow the rules, keep Sam in line and keep an eye on him. A good proper eye. Not let the little boy get lost in the crowd and abducted.

Lucy clenched her fist and took a heavy breath and chanted to herself. _Let it go Let it Go. It’ll be ok. They’ll be fine._

Sure the boys would be ok, but would Lucy be ok? Would her and Rob be alright? Could they fix all the cracks in their relationship?

_“That’s it! I’m going to visit my father and i’m taking the boys with me! Figure out what you want Robert because I’m tired of fighting with you over this!”_

That’s what she said. And she meant it. But what would she do if Robert decided that he didn’t want his family after all? What about the boys?

Bills, school, work, etc. Lucy only managed it now because Robert got paid enough to mostly cover the bills and her part-time job allowed her to support the rest. But it wasn’t enough to survive on her own with Michael and Sam, not even a little it.

Imagine a thirty-two year old single-mother moving back into her parent’s house with her two boys.

How embarrassing.

Especially considering how she put her foot down when she was only eighteen, she ran away with her boyfriend to be free and do what she wanted.

God, what had she been thinking!?

“Mom!” Lucy’s head snapped up from her drink. Relief washed over her when she saw both boys smiling brightly. Each carrying their own bag.

“Mom! We got you something!” Sammy breathed heavily and pointed at the bag Michael was holding.

“Oh my!” Lucy laughed when she pulled out the necklace and bracelet.

The beaded necklace and bracelet matched. Both adorned with a little metal flower and sun. For a moment Lucy felt the tears threatening to spill forth but she refrained from letting them fall. Instead she put them on and wore it proudly, although the missing price tag made her worry a little bit.

“How much did this cost?”

“Don’t worry mom.” Michael said suddenly. He looked relieved that Lucy liked her gifts.

“There was a sale!” Sammy butted in. “Look! There was one for my comics too!”

Sam sat on the bench with Lucy and showed her some of the comics he picked out. Apparently a man helped him pick them out and even suggested the alternative titles to try out and they seemed a little more…story like (?) than the super hero comics. Lucy still doesn’t fully understand comics. One day she will, just not today.

On the drive home Sam fell asleep. Michael sat up front with Lucy with his window down and stared out at the dark world beyond the street lights. No music played but perhaps that was for the best.

“Michael.” Lucy said softly. Michael flinched as though she startled him and turned away from the window. He rolled it up enough so that the wind wouldn’t make it hard for him to hear.

“Yeah?”

“Please tell me you didn’t spend all of your chore money on comics and gifts.” Lucy looked over her shoulder to make sure Sam was actually sleeping. Michael sighed heavily.

“No. I still have ten dollars.” Lucy nodded and bit her lip.

“Honey, I know there wasn’t any sales going on.” she waited for a moment and hoped Michael would tell her the truth.

“I bought Sam only one comic but some jerk bumped into us and tore it up. We were about to run when some other guys came up and scared him off. They bought Sammy more comics and helped me get your gifts. Wouldn’t even let me buy it with my own cash.” Michael sounded unsure, afraid almost.

“Thank you for telling me.” Lucy swallowed the lump in her throat and shot him a smile. She didn’t know how to feel about those boys buying them gifts but ultimately she was glad that Michael and Sam didn’t get roughed up. “So what were their names?”

“Um. Well Dwayne was the one who helped Sam pick out those comics and bought them.” He hesitated on the other names.

“That was very nice of him.” Michael nodded.

“The others said he really likes reading.” his voice became quiet. He was still trying to remember the names. “The other three were all blonde. One looked like a rocker, he’s tall - Paul. Paul’s his name. He kept calling you little momma. Really liked the jewelry idea for you.” Sounded like a play-boy to Lucy.

“Ok, so Dwayne likes books. Paul looks like a musician. And the others?”

“The short blonde has this really colorful jacket. I think Sam liked it, thought it was kinda cool even though it’s a little gaudy. I think he has one of those weird tics. You know like how some people can’t help but to nibble on their pencils or whatever?” Lucy nodded. “He has holes in his gloves along his fingers. I think he’d chew his nails if it weren’t for the gloves.”

“That’s an interesting was around a problem. Stop yourself from ruining your nails by chewing on gloves instead.” Michael nodded.

“I think his name was Mark. Marko maybe.” Lucy nodded.

“You said there was a third blonde?” Michael frowned at the dash as they pulled up to the house. Grandpa said he was spending the night with a widow at her place so he probably wasn’t home.

“He…” Michael sighed heavily. “I don’t know. I felt like I should know him or something.”

“That happens sometimes.” Lucy unclipped her seatbelt but waited. Sometimes Michael needed a few minutes to get out what he was trying to say.

“No not like that. Not like… Just… He seemed so familiar.” Lucy wondered who this boy was. Michael really didn’t meet anyone the last time they came to visit grandpa, so if Michael really had met this person before than it could really only be a select few people.

“What did he look like? What was he like?”

“He was nice…” Lucy waited. Nice didn’t really mean a whole lot. “Like, he had really nice blue eyes and he looked like a punk. The ones our teachers usually warn us about. I think they’re all in a biker gang because they were all wearing leather.” And ok, that did make Lucy worry a little bit more. But not every group of kids riding bikes were jerks.

But the description did remind Lucy of Michael’s one friend from the last visit.

She remembered how Michael seemed to completely forget about that vacation. About the boardwalk and the fireworks and David. Maybe the reason Michael seemed so hesitant was because he still remembered David from that trip?

“Was his name David?” Lucy finally asked. A light flickered through Michael’s eyes as recognition fled through him and then vanished.

“Yeah actually. That was his name!” Michael smiled at Lucy in relief. “How’d you know?” Lucy smiled softly.

“If it’s the same David as I’m thinking of then it makes a lot more sense. We met him last time we came out to visit grandpa. You told me he had a few brothers and that he’s the oldest.” Michael seemed lost.

“I don’t remember…”

“It’s ok sweetie. It was a long time ago. He was sixteen last time we saw him so he’s what? Nineteen?” Michael shrugged. Lucy smiled fondly and brushed Michael’s hair back. “Well i’m glad you got to see your friend again. Maybe we’ll see him again before the trip is over with.”

Michael carried the bags for Lucy while she guided a half-awake Sam into the house and up the stairs to his bedroom. Now that she knew David had been the one to help Michael and Sam, she couldn’t help but to feel a little grateful instead of hesitant. Two times now David kept an eye out and helped her sons. He may not be old enough to be a father that Michael and Sam needed but sometimes an older brother was just as good.

Lucy, however would never know how true her words were. Sam and Michael did see David again during their short trip in Santa Carla and much like their last trip neither boy would remember much about it. They’d forget all about the comic store, the boardwalk, Grandpa’s weird little habits and rules.

They’d forget about David and Dwayne and Marko and Paul.

 

~~~~~

 

Phoenix, Arizona - 1982

 

Michael 13 Sam 9

 

 

“And look Nanook! In this comic Superman has to help Batman,” Lucy restrained a giggle as she watched Sam show off his comics to Nanook.

She asked him earlier to go through his collection and see if there’s anything he’d be willing to get rid of. Sam insisted that it’d be better to sell them if anything and she agreed. The only thing Lucy forgot to account for was the sheer level of willpower Sam would need in order to resist being distracted by the contents of the comics whilst going through them.

Spring cleaning could be so tedious sometimes.

But it was fun. Cleaning through your junk and determining what can and can’t be removed just yet was like a weird journey through past memories. And Lucy had no illusions over Sam’s need for his comics. These were his emotional crutches and when he couldn’t rely on Michael or Nanook these would always be there for him.

The boy just had too many damn comics was all.

“And then theres…” Sam paused as his hand reached down into the pile and pulled up another comic. Lucy frowned when she saw how his eyes glazed over as he gazed down at the page.

From the doorway she recognized the cover. It was the comic Sam got back in Santa Carla, the one Dwayne helped him pick out. Lucy leafed through the comic at one point and she knew for a fact that it was the very comic Sam got the name Nanook from. But the way his eyes glazed over, it was like he was lost in a memory.

“Sam? What’s wrong?” Lucy took a few tentative steps into the room and then crouched near Sam. She raised a hand and tapped Sam’s shoulder.

Nanook whined and gazed at Sam’s face. Sam jerked and his eyes cleared up.

“What? Nothing’s wrong.” Sam insisted with a sheepish smile and put the comic aside. Lucy grabbed another issue from the same series and held it up.

“You looked a little confused when you saw this comic.” Sam’s eyes began to gloss over before he shook his head and looked Lucy straight in the eyes.

“I was just trying to remember what it’s about. That’s all.” Lucy frowned. How could he remember a name but not the comic?

“Well,” she sighed heavily. “Just remember that you need to at least get rid of some of these.” she gesticulated with the comic still in her hands. Sam’s eyes went wide.

“No!” he reached and snatched it out of her hands. “I can’t get rid of that one!” Lucy stared at Sam as he collected the rest from that series, stunned.

What was his problem?

“Sam?” her mouth felt dry. “Are you sure nothings wrong? You know you can tell me anything.” Sam frowned, confused.

“Yeah, i’m fine. Why do you keep asking me that?” Lucy felt the chill of fear. Sam’s reaction kind of reminded her of Michael’s when she confronted him about when he was six.

“Honey, do you remember where you got those comics from? Who got them for you?” Sam stared her down, even more confused than before. She could see the gears turning in his head.

“I got them from a comic book store mom.” She rolled her eyes.

“Obviously sweetie. But where were we? Do you remember? Do you remember who got it for you?” Sam stared her down. Nanook whined again and licked Sam’s face. Sam looked down at the comics for a minute. “Do you remember when we visited grandpa two years ago? That time your father and I had that really big fight?”

Sam hesitated.

“You and dad fight a lot.” he ended up mumbling.

Lucy felt the shudder trickle through her body. With a heavy sigh she relented and rubbed her eyes.

“Sam, I think Nanook needs to go for a walk. Can you take him please?” Sam relented and walked out with Nanook hot on his tail.

Lucy listened for the sound of the keys jingling and the front door opening and closing. Michael’s music thrummed through the walls, his favorite distraction while he cleaned.

Lucy sniffled and held herself while she cried.

 

~~~~~

 

Phoenix, Arizona - 1984

 

Michael 15 Sam 11

 

Lucy dries the tears from her eyes and thanks her lucky stars that Michael and Sam are gone on a school field trip for most of the weekend. And then she gets to work.

She removed every broken piece of furniture and puts it next to the trash outside. That side table her and Rob got for cheap at a garage sale, splintered. The door that separated the kitchen from the dining room? It’s demolished by claw marks now. Trash it. Open doorways can be nice too. Even the nice coffee table that can hold blankets and the tv remote that Rob JUST BOUGHT like three weeks ago? It’s demolished. Toss it.

Nanook whines. Thank god Lucy left him in the backyard last night, at least he’s safe. That’s one less disaster she has to explain to the boys.

Lucy takes a look through the master bedroom, the walls, the floor. She inspects the cracks and holes and vacuumed up whatever mess she didn’t catch on the first run through. She makes a quick trip to the store and patches up the walls, sands them down, paints over it all with the paint they saved from the last time they painted the house.

Thank god for leftover paint.

It’s late in the afternoon now. Lucy sits down at the dinner table with a mug of fresh coffee and a newspaper and waits. She doesn’t actually read anything, doesn’t truly process what happened last night, doesn’t think about what she’ll tell Michael and Sam. Lucy just waits. She needs answers. For now everything else can wait.

Finally the front door clicks open. She hears the soft brush of fabric as Rob walks into the dining room with his head down. For a moment Lucy feels victorious. After his shenanigans last night he’d better be cowed before her. After all the shit he’s put his family through he SHOULD feel guilty.

Lucy wants to be mad. But for now she’s just tired.

“How long?” Her mouth is dry and she takes another sip of the coffee. Rob can barely make eye contact with her as he settles himself down at the table.

“Almost a year now.” Lucy doesn’t nod. Doesn’t waste giving him excess energy when she has none.

“How?” He tenses but she doesn’t relent.

This isn’t fair. This isn’t fair to her or Michael or Sam. Maybe once upon a time she would have been kinder about this, but right now she just couldn’t bring herself to care.

“I…I was hanging out with the guys. Ended up chatting with a new friend and went for a walk with them outside the campsite.” Lucy sighed heavily and rubbed her forehead.

“And when were you planning on telling us about this Rob? After you killed one of us?” Rob tenses again. His hands are clenched tightly on the table and she watched how his body shakes.

She wants to be sympathetic. But honestly, where did common sense go?

“I wasn’t going to….” Rob starts lamely. Lucy slams the table.

“I’m sorry do you have a serious case of amnesia? Are you fucking kidding me Rob? You punctured holes in the walls! You destroyed the door and broke our coffee table! You nearly bit me and tore me to shreds!” Rob flinched.

Lucy leans back and sniffles. Tries to block out all the hurt and pain and confusion. Now isn’t the time. She needs answers right now, she needs to work out a solution right now. Tears won’t help. Not like it did when she was a little girl trying to get daddy to give her some sweets.

“I’m sorry.” he finally looks her in the eyes. Lucy knows he means it. He always means it.

But once again Lucy is stuck asking herself the question: Is this too much?

“So, is this why you’ve been running off so much lately?” Rob nodded.

Yesterday Rob had been down with the flu. He was delusional and unconscious for most of the day as well as the day before that. Perhaps if he told her about his condition beforehand she could have taken him somewhere safer. Prepared something to keep him contained.

Daddy always joked around that she married a dog of a man. Lucy never honestly never thought that would become true.

Werewolves. Who would have fucking guessed it?

Lucy tapped the table and sighed heavily.

“You know, you could have told me.” Rob sighed heavily and finally rubs his eyes. He sniffles and Lucy wonders if he’s still sick.

“I didn’t think you’d believe me and I didn’t know how to show you without hurting you.”

“Well you still hurt me.” Lucy bit.

“I didn’t mean to.”

“What you mean to do and what you actually do are two different things Rob.” Lucy feels the pinch of anger course through her and pushed in on the sides of her head. She finally relents and gets up to grab another cup of coffee. “So what are we going to do about it?”

“I don’t know.”

At least he’s being honest.

Lucy didn’t know when the next full moon would be, but she had a suspicion that Rob wouldn’t be there for Christmas.

 

~~~~~

 

Pheonix, Arizona - 1986

 

Michael 17 Sam 13

 

Rob lied. After so many years and so many struggled Lucy wasn’t even surprised anymore. But today, this was the final straw. Lucy can’t do this anymore.

Not when he almost went feral on Michael.

Lucy saw the look in Rob’s eye. The anger and rage and fear. She shoved him away from Michael and made the boys go to their rooms. Lucy felt the primal instinct to tear him down and hurt him engulf her senses despite the fact that she was only a mere human.

Maybe if Rob had never been turned into a werewolf then Lucy would have never needed to embrace these more violent feelings. But someone had to protect her boys. She has to protect her boys.

Rob left without a bag. Just his keys and wallet and left. The next morning Lucy saw Michael and Sam off to school and dug through her cabinet. Tax papers, important documents, bills, the works. Hours were spent going over every little detail and trying to see if there was any possible way they could maintain their life here in Arizona without Rob.

They barely managed to maintain it even with Rob.

And finally Lucy slammed her book shut and shoved it off the table. Loose notes and documents scattered across the floor and Lucy sighed heavily, cradling her head for a moment as she considered her options.

The knock at the door startled Lucy. She hadn’t been expecting company, even at this hour Michael and Sam weren’t due to be back from school yet. Rob would have just walked in since he lived here.

A woman maybe ten years younger than Lucy stood patiently waiting on the front doorstep.

“Can I help you?” Lucy didn’t open the door all the way. The woman settled a hard look on Lucy before she finally decided to speak. The sharp look in the stranger’s eyes put Lucy on edge.

“I came to collect some of Robert’s things. He’s too scared to come back right now.” Had….had he cheated on her again? With this woman?

Either way, Lucy didn’t want him coming back just yet, didn’t think she wanted to work things out with him anymore. What’s another drop in an overflowing bucket?

“Yeah…sure.” Lucy led the woman into the bedroom and let her pick out Rob’s clothes and toiletries. She just watched, didn’t bother to help or anything.

“You know… he does feel bad about it.” the stranger finally spoke up after she zipped the duffle bag closed.

“I wish I could believe that.” Lucy walked out of the room. She didn’t want apologies anymore. Not from Rob.

The stranger followed her.

“He told us what happened, and I offered to come because I wanted to see for myself what the problem was.” the woman followed after Lucy even into the kitchen. She watched from the doorway whilst Lucy picked up her scattered papers.

Lucy’s grip crinkled them.

“I don’t care anymore what the problem is. It’s not going to be fixed and i’m tired of trying!” Lucy turned on the woman. “He looked like he wanted to tear Michael apart, Sam too! They’re his own sons! So please, tell me what the problem is because all I see right now is that my husband has turned into a monster!” Lucy slammed the papers back onto the table.

The woman didn’t shy away from Lucy’s rage.

“Over the years he’s told us about how hard it is for him to be around his sons. Usually our pack members don’t struggle like that with their human children, it’s almost unnatural. There has to be a reason why and we all agreed that it’d be safer for you and your sons if we figured it out.” Lucy counted to ten and rubbed her eyes, trying to fight the tears that she’d been wrestling with all day.

“You’re seriously trying to tell me that there’s something unnatural going on between my sons and Rob that doesn’t have to do with the fact that Rob’s a WEREWOLF?” the woman rolled her eyes.

“We don’t know what it is. There’s probably an explanation but Robert is still a child in our eyes and doesn’t know enough to figure out the problem himself.” Lucy shook her head and waved her hands aside as if in defeat.

“Fine. Fine. But I’m done with this nonsense. I can’t do this anymore with him.” a look of pity flickered through the woman’s eyes but disappeared quickly as she nodded. “So what do you need? I don’t know if I want you to meet my sons.”

“If I can just get a look at their rooms and maybe smell one of their shirts that might be enough.” Lucy nodded.

“Ok fine. But after that you’re gone.” The woman nodded in agreement.

Lucy showed her each bedroom and watched her sniff around. She pouted and hummed to herself and sighed heavily as she picked up the duffle bag and followed Lucy to the front door.

“I’m sorry, I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for this. New wolves are moody enough as is but there’s no real explanation for that kind of behavior.”

“I don’t care anymore.” Lucy bit out. She opened the front door and followed the stranger out of the house. For a moment she felt bad that she never caught her name but that guilt flew away when she saw Michael pull into the driveway with Sam and park.

The woman paused and stared at the boys even though she was half way to her truck. She had begun to pull the bag from her shoulder and now it hung in her hand, the weight didn’t seem to effect her what-so-ever.

“Hey mom!” Sam waved as he hopped off the bike with his backpack. He stumbled and smiled sheepishly. Lucy felt the lump in her throat form as she saw the woman’s wild looking eyes rake over Sam before taking in Michael.

“Hey boys, go inside will you?” Lucy approached the woman, partially standing between her and the boys lest someone decided to pounce.

“Whose this?” Michael’s eyes raked over the stranger as he removed himself from his bike.

“Go inside. She’s just a friend of your fathers.” Michael’s gaze grew sharp and judgmental. He probably assumed the same thing Lucy did.

Sam began to speak as he approached Lucy but Michael caught him by swinging an arm over his brother’s shoulders. He practically dragged Sam into the house with him. Lucy didn’t take her eyes off of them until the door finally shut.

The stranger breathed heavily through her mouth, almost making a wheezing sound.

“Your boy is in danger.” her voice was scratchy.

“Are you threatening my children?” Lucy rounded on the woman and froze. Fear and worry painted the woman’s face and it made Lucy herself begin to worry. The anger and frustration ebbed away suddenly.

“He’s been claimed.” the woman sucked in air through her mouth. “By a vampire.” she grabbed Lucy by the forearm. “There aren’t supposed to be any here, this is wolf territory. You have to leave as quickly as you can, for your safety and ours.” Lucy felt taken aback.

Vampires?

“Vampire? But when would they have met a vampire?” Lucy tried to remember every bit of vampire media she ever took in, every bit of info she learned on them through that. It wasn’t very much.

“I don’t know. It might not even be recently, but it’s there. We’ll patrol until you can leave, but you have to leave. None of us want to have a fight like this on our hands.”

“What? A war? But - I don’t understand. You’re saying that my sons were marked by vampires? And that we can’t stay here because if we do there might be a big fight?” the woman nodded.

“More or less.”

“VAMPIRES?” Lucy almost felt hysterical.

Taking in and processing that werewolves exist and that her husband was one was one thing. Trying to cope with all his new weird habits and moods and all the time he spent with his “pack” instead of his family was another. But vampires?

“Look,” the woman moved her hands to Lucy’s shoulders, completely dropping the bag. “I know this is a lot to take in. I don’t know what the claim is for, whether it’s food or property or mating or what, but either way it’s too dangerous for you to stay here. Your sons are being targeted which means that either the vampire is still here and hunting, or it will be back for them. Your best bet is to move far away and hope it doesn’t track your boys down.”

So that was it then? Run and hide and hope your boys won’t be found? Pray for the best because If they stayed here they might all be taken out by a fight between vampires and werewolves?

“I’m sorry.” the woman finally picked up the bag and opened her truck. Lucy watched as she drove off.

She barely noticed when the door opened and Michael walked out and draped an arm across her shoulders. He pulled her into a hug and rubbed her back as she cried softly into his chest. Lucy took a long breath and wondered what the scent must be like, the one that set the wolves on edge so much.

 

~~~~~

 

The next day.

 

“Hey dad,” Lucy felt relieved that he picked up so quickly. Relieved that he was even home and awake.

“What’s wrong Lu?” he must have heard the pain and worry in Lucy’s voice.

She didn’t have a penny to her name, at least not enough to get by on their own in a completely new state at least. Rob didn’t have much of anything either, nothing that he could really give to Lucy that would have helped soften the blow. She wouldn’t have accepted it anyway.

He wasn’t there to protect Sam and Michael from the vampires and he certainly wasn’t able to protect the boys from himself.

“So… Rob and I are getting divorced.” She sniffled. Lucy was happy that she still had a week before the boys were done with school.

It made having these conversations easier when she didn’t have to worry about them overhearing it. Michael already caught her crying at night more than she felt comfortable with. He was always up so late nowadays. Like the moon called to him or something.

“Oh Lucy,” she cut him off before he could continue on with that pity tone. She hated it.

“Dad. I need to move the boys out of Arizona. I think we all need a change in pace and I was thinking that Santa Carla might be ok. It’s different enough and we could be closer to you. You’re not getting any younger after all.” she joked. Dad was silent for a moment.

“Honey, if you needed a place to stay all you had to do was ask.”

Not once did Lucy ever tell her father the full truth about Rob. She never told him about the werewolves and Rob’s pack that she never actually met. She never told him about how Rob nearly shredded her that frightful night when she first learned the truth nor did she mention the vampires and how Michael and Sam were in danger. Similarly, her father never told her about how California and Santa Carla were crawling with those blood-sucking parasites.

Michael felt relieved when Lucy told him and Sam that her and Rob were getting a divorce. Reluctant and relatively unhappy when she informed them they were leaving Arizona. And oddly excited when she told them about moving in with Grandpa in Santa Carla.

Sam was dismayed all the same but mostly kept his disappointment to himself as much as he could handle. Although he just wouldn’t let up on that damn tv. Lucy had to sell it for some extra cash instead of his comics. Something had to go after all.

Rob’s pack kept their promise and patrolled the streets around Lucy and her boy’s, making sure that no vampire would sneak in under their watch to bite them. But none of them knew that it was pointless, most vampires passed through their territory quickly and the only one they needed to keep an eye out for was waiting patiently in Santa Carla.

David awoke one night and he knew that Michael was coming at last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so i've looked over a lot of fan theories and tvtropes and whatnot and decided that whilst I don't fully agree with Grandpa being a werewolf or half-vampire, I thought it'd be really cool to have other monsters like werewolves and it would provide ample backstory and whatnot to the story whilst not being only vampires because honestly that bores me a tad when stories make it seem like vampires are the only big monster in the world. Yay? Nay?
> 
> On top of that, I have NO IDEA what I want to do with Sam specifically. Like, I know enough about the sequels and a part of me wants to include certain elements from them for plot stuff but I don't know what exactly I'd be doing with Sam.
> 
> Ideas? Desires? Requests?


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One snippet about the life of one vampire...  
> And then multiple ones concerning Lucy and the Lost Boys.
> 
> a.k.a. Bits that I wanted to write for the story but they either don't really fit in all that well OR they have no place anytime soon and this is literally all I have currently due to the sheer mass of work I have on my plate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These are what I refer to as my "don't really have a place in the major story line, but I really wanted to see stuff like this all the same". Primarily starring Lucy. If I go on to write more of the actual story and plot, this is basically a taste of what I'd be working towards.
> 
> I don't think living a life pretending that you're human is the problem so much as trying to clamp down on your instincts and not behaving more along the lines of your nature. Ignoring who you are can be really detrimental to your mental health. Plus, after a while I'm sure things get really boring and maybe having humans for entertainment might be a nice change of pace, at least for small amounts of time.

Once upon a time a very old vampire and his vampiric mistress decided that they wanted children. Being undead, however, meant that they couldn’t actually give birth. Originally the mistress was depressed, upset, and so was the main vampire. He was really looking forward to being a father.

“But wait!” he thought to himself one day. “Just because we can’t create a new child doesn’t mean that we can’t create a family of our own!” and when he informed his mistress of his idea she felt much better.

“We could adopt!” she smiled and nodded with much excitement. “We can sire our own children!” she agreed with him.

And so began the long process of an entirely different type of hunt. For days they discussed whether they wanted a boy or a girl. Who would be better to start with?

For years they discussed what age group they wanted their child to be. Unfortunately not many options were available to them, not if they wanted to keep on the good side of vampire society. A few years ago another vampire was punished for turning a five year old. The sire was mangled beyond belief and the childe had been sentenced to death by sun.

Ultimately, the vampire and his mistress picked their own children to start with. He picked a lovely young woman on the cusp of womanhood and she chose a boy whom had only a few years left before adulthood was upon him. They both loved their children dearly.

But the mistress wanted more.

Years came and went, tragedies plagued their clan and they lost countless children to their whims and folly and the ones they didn’t loose eventually left them by their own choice. More and more children were turned by the mistress and as the years went by it became clear that she was turning them younger and younger.

The vampire begins to worry that perhaps it wasn’t a child that his mistress wanted, but life itself.

One eve, after returning home from a massacre the likes of which the vampire had never witnessed before, one that resulted in loosing countless children and other vampires to a clan of hunters, did the vampire finally witness something dreadful. In her arms, the mistress cradled a baby.

Too young to understand life, too young to have any sort of control, the spitting infant sent a cold fear into the already cold and lifeless body of the vampire.

The mistress hummed happily and gazed down at her newest childe.

“What have you done?” the vampire knew that even though they were condemned to hell, a much worse sentence could only occur for this sort of blasphemy.

“Isn’t he beautiful?” his mistress pushed back the short blonde locks of the screaming little monster in her arms.

“Give him to me.” she paused in her humming. She knew her vampire was up to something. “Give him to me.” he repeated more forcefully.

She tried to fight him, but he had made her and still held claim over her. He ripped the childe from her arms and skirted away from her claws as she unleashed a furious scream at him. With one swift motion the childe in his arms turned to dust and fell away into nothing.

They made no more children after that night.

He kept an avid eye on his mistress. Never let her leave his side nor wander too far. But she began to wilt away. Her mind wavered, her hunger vanished, and the only thing she desired now was death. No matter what he did or said or tried, her despair prevailed in the end.

Maximilian gave his mistress a proper burial and then set sail for the new world.

Years later Maximilian awoke to a young boy and his sister wandering into his den for safety. He watched as the boy tended to the fire and held his crying sister, she was dying from a fever with no hope for medicine or survival for food was scarce and money was hard to come by.

For a week they stayed in Maximilian’s den. For a week the boy sat by his sister’s side and did everything he could to help her. Starved himself as he gave his everything to her.

Something about the boy struck of chord with Maximilian. Maybe it was his plight and behavior. Maybe it was the hard look in this young boy’s eyes. Or maybe it was even the soft blue eyes and blonde hair.

One evening Maximilian awoke and could heard the boy crying. He already knew the sister was dead. There was only one heartbeat now, after all.

And this was when Maximilian finally revealed himself to the boy.

The boy looked up and didn’t seem surprised or scared or afraid. Just tired. It was to be expected after all.

“What do you call yourself?” Maximilian asked the boy. After a week he had grown fond of him despite the fact that he had yet to interact with him. He spent the entire week simply watching.

“David.”

Maybe it was because the boy reminded him of himself. Maybe the boy reminded him of that baby from years ago. Or maybe it was a sad attempt at reclaiming what he lost in the form of his children and mistress.

Maximilian decided that it was time to start a new family. He never turned boys before, but David would be his first. And this time…

This time he would get it right.

 

~~~~~

 

Lucy sat on the veranda enjoying her ice tea and watching the stars in the sky when a loud motorcycle interrupted her thoughts. Michael already left to spend time with his friends, Sam hitched a ride with Michael to see his own, and Grandpa was spending the night with the widow once more. Michael's dirt bike didn't make a sound like this one but Lucy already had a hunch as to whom her visitor night be.

"Heeeyyyy little momma!!" Paul nearly stumbled off his motorcycle with a plastic bag in hand. Lucy chuckled at the display.

"Good evening Paul. To what do I owe the honor?" She put her glass down but watched as Paul bounced up the steps.

"Boys dared me to dye my hair, Michael said I could probably use your shower since the hotel doesn't really have good pressure." Lucy nodded.

"Yes I think we can do that." She grabbed her glass as she stood up and led Paul inside. "Do you need any help?" She looked over her shoulder and saw the uncertain look on Paul's face. "I'm sure detangling it after having it styled like that for days on end can be a pain." Paul slowly nodded.

"That'd be helpful... Yeah." He almost sounded small in his mellow surprise. Like he wasn't expecting Lucy to offer up any assistance. Lucy was actually expecting him to make a dirty joke so his subdued response shocked her.

"Come on sweetie," she grabbed a chair. "My bathroom will probably be the best spot." She led Paul up to her bathroom and set up the chair.

Paul put aside his coat and bag while she went to grab Michael's hair products since they were suited towards detangling hair. Unfortunately Lucy Sam and Grandpa didn't have nearly as much hair to tame and their products reflected that.

"You know, I used to do Sam and Michael's hair all the time when they were kids." Lucy spoke softly as she massaged the shampoo in and then rinsed it. "I did their fathers too, back when he had long hair." She sighed as she remembered how she used to help him brush and braid his locks.

Paul was tense for the first few minutes, but as she put in the conditioner and carefullyworked on his hair he began to relax. He didn’t say much and Lucy wondered if she was wrong in her assumption that Paul and Marko were the chattier boys of the group. Paul was definitely the loudest, at least.

She brushed out the tangles and knots, working from the end up, and hummed softly to herself.

“What song are you humming?” Lucy paused.

“Hm, you know I don’t even know if it’s anything in particular.” Paul nodded softly and Lucy went back to brushing. “Why?” Lucy wanted to continue humming but she was afraid it was irritating Paul. He shrugged.

“Just wondered.” He mumbled.

“Ah,” Lucy finished up detangling his hair and hummed happily. “You know, your hair really is nice. I’m surprised you don’t style it other ways.” Paul quirked an eyebrow at her as she walked around the side to get a look from the front.

“You don’t think it’s girly or inappropriate?” Lucy chuckled and shook her head.

“It’s fine. It’s kind of in fashion right now anyway right? Especially for those big time bands?” Lucy sighed heavily. “I remember when I was a teenager and all the silly little fashions we used to follow. Every now and then I think about trying something different, but I’d probably look silly don’t you think?” she smiled softly and grabbed a towel, carefully pressing as much water free from Paul’s locks as she spoke.

“You’d probably look pretty hot in leather.” Lucy let out a loud laugh. Paul was finally smirking, the one Lucy was beginning to learn meant he felt comfortable and probably happy.

“I’d probably melt in it too! Dear lord I used to love wearing pants but now I’m always too warm I just can’t bear to give up the freedom my skirts give me.” She laughed. Paul’s eyes twinkled as he watched Lucy laughing.

“I don’t think i’ve ever worn a skirt so I wouldn’t understand that feeling.” Lucy smirked back at Paul.

“Oh it can be so nice sometimes! You should try it.” Paul finally shook his head with a laugh and grabbed the towel from Lucy’s hands, finishing up the job.

“I couldn’t do that, the guys would rag on me so hard for it! I already have the longest hair.” Lucy tsked and grabbed the box of dye from the bag.

“Boys used to wear skirts too. Babies of both genders wore dresses for a long time just because it was easier and in some places men wear them too.” Paul nodded.

“David would probably look good in a kilt.” Lucy laughed and nodded.

“I’m sure he could pull it off. Just like how you look dashing with long hair.” Paul paused and looked down. Lucy stopped her inspection of the box’s contents to observe him.

He looked lost in his thoughts, almost sad. And she didn’t want to force him to speak up about it, no she knew better than to drag attention to it during an important task. Michael and Sam hardly ever responded well to such tactics and she doubted Paul would either. He’d tell her eventually if he wanted to.

“So, are we doing the whole head or hightlights or what? I don’t think one box is going to be enough if we’re dying everything.” Paul jerked out of his thoughts and tilted his head side to side, swaying slightly.

“Hmmmm, they only said I had to dye my hair, they didn’t every specify how much.” Lucy held up the part of the box that showed the color next to Paul’s head and hummed.

“Why not do a nice strip then? Frame your face without going crazy on the color?” Paul’s face lit up with a smile.

“That’d be so cool!”

Fifteen minutes later Paul and Lucy were laughing in the kitchen. Some of the dye insisted on sticking to his skin and no matter how many times Lucy wiped it away he seemed to get more on himself. Hopefully it wouldn’t dye his skin too badly and they can wash off the excess later.

Lucy handed off a glass to Paul with a little flourish.

“Now don’t tell your mother I let you drink!” Her cheesy smile made Paul laugh.

They already agreed that the boys, despite their appearances, were more than adults and therefore any attempts to restrict their access to alcohol was pointless. So long as they didn’t cause damage to Lucy’s family or home she didn’t care, and they weren’t allowed to get Michael black-out-drunk.

They took a long sip of their margaritas and sighed heavily. Lucy basked in the quiet of the house for a moment since she knew it’d probably get loud soon. Someone would walk in that front door or Paul would begin to get loud and the peace of her night would be shattered in favor of some excitement. That’s how it seemed to always go nowadays when she wasn’t at work.

“Thank you…” Paul mumbled. “For tonight.” he took a massive drip from his glass. “This has been fun…” he almost sounded sad.

“I’m having fun too, It’s been a while since I got to do something like this. Thank you for letting me help you.” Paul shot her a look and then looked down.

“Can I…” he sighed. Paul looked almost like he was lost for words which was a little disconcerting. “You…”

“What is it dear?”

“My mom was kind of a religious nut. Really strict and kinda mean and….” Paul pouted. “It wasn’t always bad. She had her moments and tonight…spending time with you just kind of reminded me of her.”

Lucy wanted to pry. Wanted to ask question after question. But she wasn’t sure if it would even be appropriate at this point.

Instead Lucy opted for the next best thing.

“If you ever want to talk about it with me, you can.” Paul shot her a shy smile.

“Maybe…” He finished the last of his drink. “Maybe we could do this again sometime?” Lucy nodded and finished her drink. She put both of their glasses into the sink.

“I’d love to.”

Ten minutes and one rinse job later Lucy heard the roaring pack of motorcycles and one dirt bike pull onto their road and up the driveway. She finished drying and brushing Paul’s hair and let him leap off back downstairs to greet the others even though they hadn’t even begun to style it back to how he preferred. Lucy was pretty sure he didn’t mind though. He seemed so excited to show off the new streak of color.

Even from upstairs Lucy could hear Paul’s excited exclamations, Marko’s boisterous arguments, and Sam’s excessive laughter. She finished cleaning up and took the bag of trash back downstairs to see how the group circled around Paul to get a look at his hair. He stood proudly in the center with his chest puffed up, soaking in the attention.

“Well fuck you guys! Lucy and I think it looks great!”

“Dude don’t you know? If your mother thinks it looks great then it’s probably not.” Sam snickered next to Marko. Paul refused to deflate.

“One, she’s not my mom. Two, she’s fucking great and has GREAT taste. And THREE, if you don’t want Little Momma then I’ll take her!”

“Dude!” Michael snatched Paul up into a headlock and began to give him a noogie much like he’d give Sam. “That’s so gross keep your hands off my mom!”

“I didn’t mean like that!” Paul squawked.

Lucy covered her mouth with her hand and tried to contain her laughter. She watched the party from the stairs for a moment and watched as the boys argue laugh with one another. A sudden errant though crossed her mind.

“I can’t believe you were seriously planning on having a hair night with her and not invite me!” Marko huffed. “We always do hair night together!”

“I’m sure Lucy would love to have you over for hair night too.” Dwayne sighed heavily, already seeming tired of the antics of tonight as he slumped over onto the couch with a book he nicked off the shelf. It was a new one Lucy picked up from a sale last week, one she thought Dwayne might enjoy reading if he hadn’t already read it.

“I can’t believe you guys are seriously considering stealing my mom for bonding time.” Sam’s crinkled nose and weirded out expression didn’t fool anyone. “Just don’t even think about trying to turn her, I won’t forgive you if you try to take her too.” it was almost precious how protective he got when he thought no one would notice.

“Cool your jets small fry.” David huffed and nudged Sam aside as he swaggered into the kitchen for a drink.

Michael turned away from David. He and Lucy locked eyes and a soft smile grew on Michael’s face when he saw the happy glow Lucy had.

“I can toss that out for you mom.” He walked up and took the bag from Lucy’s hands. Paul and Marko’s eyes snapped over to Lucy.

“Hey Little Momma!” Paul roared and leapt over the couch. Marko darted around, trying to beat Paul to her.

“Hey no! Don’t pay attention to him he’s already had enough for the night!”

“Wha- Get the fu- MARKO!” The two began pushing and shoving until they ended up in a wrestling match at Lucy’s feet.

“Boys!” Lucy snapped, but not in a mean way. Just in a way that demanded their attention. They paused in their fight to look up at her and she almost laughed at the innocent expressions they shot her. “I can help you both with your hair.” Marko smiled and jumped up.

“Me first!” Paul scoffed.

“She’s not even done with mine yet!”

“Too bad! You’ve been hogging her all night!”

“It’s not hogging if you’re not even here in the first place!” Lucy shook her head with a laugh and waved her arms.

Sometimes these boys were just too funny.

 

~~~~~

 

Lucy finished drying off the final bowl and stuck it into its spot. She closed the old wooden door carefully with a wince as the old hinges let out a loud squeak and mentally she made a note to oil all the hinges in the house sometime. For a moment she took a long relaxing breath and let the tension flow off her shoulders way.

She stepped over to the kitchen doorway and peered through into the living room. Poor Michael already passed out again. David let Michael use him as a pillow and flicked through one of the magazines that he’s already looked at at least a dozen times by now.

“Dear you must be bored of those. Would you like me to bring you something else to do or read?” David didn’t look up at her but she knew he heard her. He liked to play so many things close to his chest it was a wonder how he surrounded himself with so many boys that wore their hearts on their sleeves. Even Dwayne was an easier book to read than David despite his quiet nature.

“I’m fine.” Lucy tilted her head as she watched him. Michael told her that he and the boys played cards a lot when they didn’t feel like doing much of anything.

“How about some cards then? If you want I can play with you too.” David finally looked up, studying Lucy for a moment before giving a small nod.

Lucy grabbed her favorite pack of cards from the porch and cleared a side table off. She moved it as close to David as possible so that he wouldn’t have to move too much since Michael was still sleeping on him. She moved the armchair closer too and settled down while David began to shuffle.

“What would you like to play?” she asked softly so as to not disturb Michael.

“Blackjack.” David said after a moment of consideration. Lucy nodded and he began to distribute the cards.

They didn’t say much for the first two rounds. Both of them were quiet in their declarations as they grabbed and distributed cards and showed their hands. There wasn’t much need to get all excited when it was just the two of them.

“Thank you for spending time with Michael. I know it can get kind of boring when he’s sick but he really does hate being alone, especially when he’s not feeling well.” David paused in his shuffling for only a moment before he dealt out the new set.

“It’s ok.” His tone wasn’t clipped, just short. Like he wasn’t sure how he wanted to respond to Lucy.

“Vampires don’t get sick do they?” she took her hand and inspected her cards.

“Certain things can make us feel unwell. Younger vampires have more weakness than older ones do. But no. We don’t really get sick like humans do.” Lucy nodded.

“That must be nice.” David hummed in agreement. They continued on for a few more rounds in silence.

This time it was David whom broke the silence.

“What happened anyway?” Lucy frowned. “With the old man.” David clarified.

“Um,” Lucy’s eyes flickered over to Grandpa’s workroom confused. He was working on a new animal tonight and spent most of it sequestered away from Michael since he didn’t want to get sick.

“No. Michael’s father.” David sounded resigned, like he really didn’t want to acknowledge the man. A wave of understanding flowed over Lucy. “Michael told me that he was a jerk and that you divorced. But…” David seemed so reluctant to speak, like it was hurting his pride to be making such conversation over such a human topic.

“It’s ok dear.” Lucy sighed heavily and put her cards back down. David didn’t seem too interested in continue their game right now anyway. “Well. We had our good years and bad years. I really wanted Sam and Michael to have a good father in their life and he really did try but too many things kept getting in the way.” She leaned back into her seat and curled up. David looked off into a different corner of the room as he listened.

“You stuck together for a pretty long time.” Lucy nodded.

“We were doing ok. We just,” Lucy looked down at Michael.

There was no easy way to explain it, not in a way that properly explained what happened. Everything Lucy had told Michael and Sam felt shallow to her now, but only because they lived through it all. They already knew almost everything.

There was just one detail she never informed them of. And right here and now she felt like David needed to know. She could probably go a whole lifetime not telling either Sam or Michael,\ but a small part of her felt like the divorce had been partially David’s fault. He had been the one to mark Michael, it was David’s connection that set Rob off so many times, set off Rob’s pack and had Lucy and her boys practically casted out of Arizona.

Sure it might be a little unfair of Lucy to feel like David was to blame, but a woman can only take so much unfairness without lashing out in some way shape or form.

“One year something happened to Rob. He started to change, became moodier and left for almost a week at a time once a month. I thought he was cheating again, maybe he had another family he was spending time with.” Lucy laughed dryly though it wasn’t one from actual amusement. “I wasn’t totally wrong. But one night he got so sick he couldn’t run away like he usually did and I found out the truth.”

Lucy finally looked up from Michael’s sleeping face up at David. Their eyes met as she continued.

“Rob was a werewolf. He had a new pack and everything and although he couldn’t really explain it all to me we got a lot better about handling some of our problems. It was easier seeing him leave when I knew it was because he was forced to transform into a wolf and staying with his pack was safer for me and the boys. I never told Michael and Sam, tried to explain it away as work related stuff, but I think they knew it was a lie.”

Lucy sighed heavily. She remembered the frustration and relief she felt once she knew. Rob was no longer randomly storming out of the house because of a fight, but because his moon cycle was starting and it made him even more irritable than he usually is.

“But the thing about being a baby monster is that you don’t necessarily understand what all of your instincts are telling you. You don’t know what everything means.” Lucy’s eyes turned hard as she started David down. She tried to impress the seriousness of her words as she continued on. “Rob grew aggressive towards Michael, feral almost. To him Michael smelt like danger or something.” her eyes teared up and she looked away when she saw the realization flicker through David’s eyes. “A member of his pack came over to investigate and told us that we had to leave Arizona for our own safety. They didn’t want you on their territory and they didn’t want to start a fight over it. The funny thing is that none of us realized at the time that it was you who marked Michael. We practically delivered him to you.”

Lucy saw how David’s hand gently carded through Michael’s hair while he listened. She refused to look at him once more until he said something, anything. An apology might have been nice, though Lucy knew it was childish to expect one, especially since it wasn’t really David’s fault.

Even without the mark, Lucy was sure their marriage would have ended eventually.

“I would have hunted him down. It might have taken some time, but I would have found him.” David mumbled. Lucy nodded.

“I know.” she breathed.

“But I guess that explains how you knew.”

“You never bothered to erase my memories and I used to live here when I was a little girl. Even if I didn’t believe them back then, I heard all the stories and saw you boys around a few times. You really don’t change your look much over time.” David smirked and shrugged.

“I honestly didn’t think you’d remember anyway. I wasn’t planning on meeting you more than once.” David watched Michael as the sleeping boy breathed lightly. David seemed almost fascinated and pleased and for once he didn’t look so mean in his pleasure.

“Thank you for at least letting me have this.” Lucy watched the boys out of the corner of her eye. David shook his head.

“You thank me for doing so many little things when I haven’t given you a single apology.” he spoke just loud enough for Lucy to hear. “Most normal women would accuse me of stealing everything important to them.” Lucy let out a sharp breath and bit her cheek.

So he knew she kind of resented him, at least a little bit.

“As much as I wish for him to stay my little boy forever, that’s just unrealistic. Probably the worst thing about motherhood is that eventually you have to let them go and let them be their own person.”

“But if he ever needs you, you’ll always be there for him.” David stated simply. It was like he heard this before.

Lucy nodded.

“And so long as you want me, I’ll be there for you boys too.”

A small sincere smile danced across David’s features. He carefully picked up Michael and took him upstairs to put him to bed. Lucy focused on putting the living room back together and put the deck of cards back into the box.

Lucy was pushing the armchair back into place when David appeared back down in the living room, pausing half way between the door and stairwell.

“You’re a good mom.” and then he was gone.

The next day Michael was finally over his sickness. He practically leapt out the front door to ‘go for a ride’ once the sun set in the sky. Lucy rubbed her tired eyes and sat down on the porch, enjoying the cool breeze of the night and was already regretting her work shift tomorrow morning. She dozed for a few minutes and when she woke up she found a new pack of cards sitting next to her glass.

The new deck was decorated with flowers and depictions of nature and other things that reminded Lucy of her younger years with a sweet fondness. She took them into the house with her and got ready for bed. All the while, she thought about the strange nature that was vampires.

Those Lost Boys hadn’t been children in a very long time, they never really had much of an opportunity to experience more than half of the nuances of being a human. Marriage? Children? Work? These boys had been lost in time and life at such a young age, and in death they never felt much need to have a hand in any of the more human parts of life.

So marital issues and the like must be mostly lost on them. These things simply would never be important in their lives, not with the different natures they now lived with (or so Dwayne and Marko tried to explain to her….ok so mostly Dwayne.) So pretending that they actually cared about Lucy’s life struggles and sympathizing must be a tad difficult for them to do.

Lucy never asked for an apology. She never expected one and honestly she thought that placing blame on David for an inevitable occurrence would be silly. What should he care anyhow? Lucy seriously assumed that David’s main interest within her household was Michael.

So yeah, the new cards surprised her but she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Even an unspoken apology from David, given in the form of a gift, was still a valuable apology.

Maybe he really did care.

 

~~~~~

 

At first, Lucy thought she was going to struggle with all of her sons new friends. David and Dwayne were brick walls waiting for prey to run into blindly whilst Marko and Paul seemed almost malicious in their forms of amusement. Michael and Sam never had to tell her a thing, she remembered the stories from her childhood and has more than enough experience with the meanness boys at play can harness. Alan and Edgar were wonderful yet dense, single minded and completely unguided in their self appointed duties.

The more time she spent around the boys however, the more apparent it became that perhaps she was simply quick to judge. Alan was smart but worried constantly and did what he could to sway Edgar’s mind or lead him to safer conclusions. He concealed Edgar’s over-protective nature selfishly and secretly. Lucy saw it whenever Edgar began to spew conspiracy theories or plans and plots, tricks and tactics they could use on their hunts. Alan would point out flaws and force Edgar to look deeper into his own half-assed plans and together they worked on their own plans with which they’d protect one another. Oh, and Sam as well.

Sam was rash and sensitive, but smart and calculating. He danced dangerously between both sides, relieving the stresses the boys unintentionally put upon one another and Lucy really believed that Sam had no clue about it. The trio were inseparable from each other and their plans and whilst Lucy wasn’t too pleased that these plans included hunting rogue vampires and other monsters, she was glad that Sam at least had friends whom were surprisingly protective over him.

For the longest time it had only been her and Michael watching over the small boy…

Then there was David and his gang.

Marko, although small, perhaps packed the biggest punch to Lucy’s heart. From a very young age the only family he knew were his fellow street rats. Many of his brothers died from disease and injury in the factories. Just as many got caught in an attempt to steal and were beaten to death. And more than a few disappeared in the dark of the night never to be seen again. The terror and troubles Marko faced aged him and he honestly thought he was due to die in an alley by a knife or hanged by the executioner.

But in his turning he found a new family and freedom, one he never could hope for or dream of. This new family and life left him extremely protective and quick to bite, quick to rend flesh from limbs and many serious threats sent him into a rage. He was anxious. And scared.

One night the boys thought it might be funny to show her around the sunken hotel. Give her a good old scare. Marko steered her down a hall at one point, he seemed nervous and excited all at once, like Lucy’s reaction would mean the world to him. Though he’d probably be amused and and content with whatever her reaction would be.

Ok, so maybe Lucy didn’t totally care for the scenes depicted in his artwork, but Lucy egged him on to explain how he made the pieces and show her more. Some were experimental, some just abstract mess with an odd metallic smell to it, and others were relatively normal depictions of the boy’s night-to-night life. Each and every piece painted on the walls and carved into the rock reminded Lucy of old church murals.

Later that week Lucy noticed an art shop in town and maybe went a little crazy with her spending. Michael delivered her bag of gifts (in a brand new art backpack meant for easy transportation in case Marko decided to take his books and pens with him) and a few weeks later Lucy came home to some splendid new artwork to put on the fridge.

The one of her sitting amongst the tide pools with just the hem of her favorite skirt dipping into the water was her favorite.

Despite his loud nearly overbearing nature, Paul loved to listen. Music, voices, sounds in general. Lucy was surprised at first when Marko made the joke about how much Paul loved to listen to Dwayne reading until she heard Dwayne read aloud one night. Then she noticed how Paul stopped and sat in the kitchen while she cooked and cleaned and played one of her old favorites on the radio. When they were alone and the crickets would sing Paul would close his eyes and stand still like a statue for hours if you let him.

Michael told her about the music players Paul hoarded in the hotel and when Lucy saw a nice selection at a garage sale she couldn’t help herself.

The boys thanked her for widening his music selection, but Lucy was more pleased when he began to sing along to the songs she listened to.

Despite his appearance, Dwayne was possibly the most open out of all the boys. He just didn’t like to talk too much.

“People think you’re smart when you’re quiet and this idiot’s standing next to you.” he muttered to her one night and gestured to Paul. Lucy laughed but she disagreed.

People think you’re smart when you’re actually smart.

Out of all her boys, Dwayne was the only one whom really had a thirst for knowledge. Out of everyone, he felt the most need to keep up with the times, with the technology and lingo. Dwayne observed and kept tract of every little thing. He noticed when Lucy decided to rearrange the bookshelf to include new books she bought specifically for Dwayne to read, the ones like Les Mis and The Last of the Mohicans, Phantom of the Opera and Dante’s Inferno.

Sure classics were cliche, but she figured they were always a good start.

Dwayne wanted to know how televisions worked so Lucy found him some guide books and a manual to look over. Even though they didn’t have access to one, she even found him a guide on computers and some on programming.

Some nights when the stress of work took its toll on Lucy he and Paul would sit with her and Dwayne would read from their current fictional adventure. One time Paul even convinced him to read a “make your own adventure” book and took a shot every time they died and that ended up being one hell of a night. Lucy was surprised when her photos of them developed properly.

And finally, David.

David was the most closed off out of everyone. Sure, everyone held their cards relatively close to their chest, but David had eaten his so you couldn’t even see what he had. Michael insisted David was ‘this’ or ‘that’. Today David said this and it was really funny. He got real mad when Paul and Marko were rough-housing too much and wouldn’t settle down. He got protective when some jerk tried to square up with Michael even though Michael is more than capable of handling himself in a fight.

Most of the time the boys acted like actual boys. Children out at play and crowding around whomever they pleased for attention. David occasionally made plays like he was also a child, he certainly looked like one, but the way he stood and looked out over his pack, the way he pouted and put on a front, David hadn’t actually been a child in centuries.

And he hated to be treated as such. Despised it. Loathed it.

The other boys all got to be children under David’s guiding hand. They were treated as such by Max. Forced to play the part even when they didn’t want to. And they even acted like kids around Lucy, or she suspected as such, because she really couldn’t comprehend vampires twice her age still being actual children that desired her mother-like affections.

Everyone but David put on the act.

And if everyone in the pack, including Lucy’s own sons, were to represent children at different points in their life and their desires for a mother’s attention, then David was the fully grown man with a family of his own with absolutely no need for a mother. Maybe a helping hand, but not a mother. 

So Lucy did her best to refrain from such.

She respected his need for distance, his need to watch, his need to control the other boys when they were getting out of control. Hell, he did a better job at reining the boys in than she could ever hope to do herself.

But then she’d see him shoot her an approving nod, a small smirk, any small affirmation. Help out with a task without even being prompted, fix something or send one of the boys to fix something she and grandpa had little hope of wrangling together anytime soon. Put food on her table when she was too tired to cook for the boys and bring everyone together for a random family dinner she never expected to have.

David didn’t speak it into existence or wear his heart on his sleeve. He didn’t unfold like a flower blooming in the night nor did he break down and spill his whole life story onto her. He showed it in the small actions, the little things that made the world of difference to Lucy. Lucy seriously doubted any of the vampires seriously saw her as a mother figure, she never expected them to.

But at the very least she could say she had their respect. Especially David’s.

 

~~~~~

 

Lucy quirked an eyebrow at the odd squad parked at her dinner table. Last she heard, Dwayne promised Sam he’d help him with his homework, but Edgar and Alan Frog were interesting additions to the study sessions. Michael lazily leafed through his homework in the living room while David watched a bored Marko and Paul egg him on about polynomials or something.

“I hope you’re getting your homework done.” Lucy called out to the crowd. Marko snickered and Paul leaned back into his seat, sneering down at Michael.

“We tried telling him he should get to work earlier…” Paul began.

“But he just wanted to dick around with David!” David smacked the backside of Marko’s head without moving very far.

“He’d be done by now if these two idiots weren’t trying so hard to distract him.” Michael snapped his head up and shot a glare at David.

“Wow, it’d be nice if SOMEONE would entertain them for me.” David smirked at Michael.

“Can’t fight all your battles for you.” Michael squinted at David and threw an eraser at the blonde.

“You’re fuckin’ useless is what you are.” Michael snapped.

Paul cackled.

“Hey! Shut up over there!” Edgar croaked from the dining table. “I can’t understand what Dwayne’s saying!”

“That's cuz you’re a dumbass!” Paul roared back.

“If anyones a dumbass here it’s you, dumbass!” Alan stood up from his seat.

Sam sighed heavily and slammed his head on the table. Dwayne leaned back and shook his head as Alan and Edgar began a shouting match with Paul and Marko. Michael shot David a dirty look whilst David smirked back at him and shrugged as if to say “what can you do?”

“HEY!” Grandpa slammed his work door open and glared out at the cast in his house. “What did I say about yelling in the house!?” there was a beat of silence.

“You didn’t say anything about yelling in the house.” Sam finally mumbled without raising his head. Dwayne poked Sam’s cranium lightly with an amused smiled.

Grandpa glared out at the group of boys and nodded.

“Well…. no yelling in the house.” he shut the door and a beat of silence followed.

“You two must not fuck while he’s here.” Michael smacked Paul.

“Ow!”

“So dude, you never told me whether garlic actually effects vampires or not.” Edgar said as he turned to Dwayne.

“Edgar, not now!” Sam sighed exasperated.

“Why would I tell you that when you haven’t even finished your homework yet?”

“Ah come on!”

Lucy let a small fond smile blossom as she shook her head. David caught her eyes and gave her a nod before turning back to watch Michael struggle with his homework.

“You’re doing it wrong.”

Michael hissed at David.

“Damnit David! You didn’t even go to school! Shut the fuck up!” Marko and Paul howled with laughter once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here it is, sorry if it's not really what you were hoping for but I'm essentially putting off writing any actual story plot stuff. I still have to finish Jackbox and I have a lot of editing I should be doing on my own personal work alongside acting as GM and preparing for a new campaign and work and BLAUGH. I'd be so much happier if I was making money off of my writing, I can't tell you how much I want to quit my day job...
> 
> I'll get it done eventually...
> 
> Annnywhooo. If you have ideas you'd like to see feel free to shoot me a message and I'll see about writing it up. I'm probably gonna be taking my sweet time with the next few chapters.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone's just a little uneasy about their first day in Santa Carla but all for vastly different reasons. Lucy's stressed about keeping her family safe happy and healthy, but she used to live in Santa Carla when she was much younger and although its taken he some time, she comes to a morbid realization. Small Blessings are chased down with bad luck and sometimes the only thing you can do is try your best. Michael's a little excited, but he's surrounded by waves of confusion and missing memories and slowly they're becoming a hinderance and he has no idea. Sam has no idea how he's going to survive this summer.
> 
> But that's only the tip of the iceberg.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The hardest thing about this chapter was coming up with the damn summary.

Though the drive took long over six hours, pit stops for Nanook extended it significantly, the trip felt relatively short to Michael. He started off driving first thing in the morning while Sam slept in the back with Nanook and Lucy snoozed in the passenger seat. Half way through the day they finally switched and Michael ended up in the back seat with the dog taking a nap while Sam sat in the passenger seat. He ended up sleeping for almost half of that drive but by the time they entered the city’s limits Michael was as awake as can be.

Long drives are always improved by naps. Fact.

So by the time they finally reached Grandpa’s house in Santa Carla you could say that Michael was more than ready to simply walk around and stretch his legs. He was restless and excited to explore this new town because deep down he felt as though something important was waiting, something great and exciting and meant only for himself. Michael didn’t want to get his hopes up, but this summer might be the best one he’s ever had.

Unfortunately Sam didn’t share in Michael’s excitement.

“Man this blows.” Sam groaned. After the whole incident with Grandpa playing possum and unpacking they finally had a chance to just stop and take in the whole house.

Michael stared at the living room towards the kitchen which sat across the way from the front door and frowned. Some nagging sensation at the back of his head insisted that even after all of these years the house still looked generally the same and Grandpa hadn’t changed much. But that was such a weird feeling to have. Michael has never visited Grandpa in Santa Carla before…

Right?

“You look confused.” Sam shoved Michael’s arm with his elbow. The boy was holding his last box of comics. Nanook was walking around the yard outside with Lucy and Grandpa.

Michael knew they were having grownup talk so he didn’t really want to go out there to look around just yet. It’d have to wait until later.

“No I don’t.” Michael tore his eyes away and looked down at Sam. A slight poke at the smaller boy’s shoulder was enough to make him sway. “Just… I feel like I’ve been here before. Like I dreamt about it or something.”

“Sounds like Deja Vu.” Sam shrugged. Michael shook his head.

“No it can’t be that. I’d have to have been here before for that… that’s how that works right?” Sam frowned and stared out at the living room.

“I don’t remember.” Michael watched as Sam’s eyes became glazed over as he stared out among the room.

He got the same look when he was looking at certain comics he couldn’t recall getting. It was like Sam was desperately trying to remember something that just didn’t exist in his head, or at the very least a memory that’s so fuzzy it’s almost like it’s not real. Michael knew because he had moments like that as well. It’s a very off putting sensation.

“Hey,” Michael nudged Sam again and watched as the foggy look left his eyes. “Why don’t you go put that stuff down and see if there’s anything cool hiding around here we can break?” Sam smirked and shook his head. Michael watched his little brother trudge up the stairs before he turned to look at the living room too.

Maybe Sam had the same feeling as him about this place after all.

“Oh Michael,” Lucy came in through the front door with Nanook. The dog took running up the stairs after Sam. “Grandpa said there’s some space in the shed for your bike but we’ll have to move some things out of the way first.” Michael nodded. That was honestly more than he was expecting, really.

“What about your car?” Lucy shrugged.

“There’s really only so much space for one car and a bike in there. Don’t worry about it.” Michael nodded and looked around the room.

“I’m sure we’ll figure something out…”

The antlers and blankets made him feel uneasy. The layout of the room made him feel antsy. Even Grandpa’s workroom and the kitchen doorway made his stomach roll with discomfort. Michael didn’t enjoy the sensation that he had forgotten something very important.

“What’s wrong honey?” Lucy laid a hand on Michael’s arm, pulling his attention away from his inspection.

Michael shrugged.

“Nothing, it’s just… different.” Lucy nodded and looked around the room.

“I know this might be hard, moving during the summer doesn’t really give you or Sam a chance to hang out with friends, but you never know.” she shrugged and threw her hand out with a small smile. “We have all summer to get adjusted at least.”

That’s… not what Michael meant. Lucy seemed a little uneasy herself now, maybe just as much as Michael was earlier. But she was right, focusing on the parts that made him uncomfortable wouldn’t help anything. He’d get used to it eventually….

Hopefully.

 

~~~~~

 

“Michael,” Lucy knocked on the door to Michael’s room. He finished putting up his decorations about an hour ago and now laid listlessly on the bed.

“Yeah mom?” Lucy opened the door and peered in at him from a respectable distance.

“Sam and I were thinking of going to the boardwalk for a while. Get out of the house for a while and get some fresh air since we were in the car practically all day.”

Michael sat up and looked at her curiously. The idea sounded great actually. Just mentioning it made Michael feel excited and lively once more and he decided that there was no real reason to stay inside all night anyway.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “Let’s go.”

He let Lucy drive since she was more than familiar with how to get there and where to park. Next time he’d ride his bike here for sure, but for now it’d be better to stick with his mother and brother and get a layout of the land.

“Look at all the lights, it’s like a weird surfer carnival!” Sam gaped and pointed out all the rides and attractions that weren’t shops. Michael made a face and shook his head.

“It’s not like you’ve never seen a carnival before.”

“Well I know but…” Sam stopped speaking. He got a weird look on his face. “It’s not like we’ve ever been to this one before.” Michael felt a faint sense of Deja Vu and decided that Sam most definitely had to be feeling it too. It couldn’t just be him.

Lucy cleared her throat when she saw the expressions on their faces.

“Well boys if you want to go on some rides, now’s as good as a time as any!” Michael heard the tone in her voice, he could sense what she was getting at.

“What were you planning on doing mom? I thought we were all just gonna stretch our legs and look around.” Lucy nodded.

“Well we are but if you two want to go do something else you’re more than welcome to. I was thinking about taking a peek into some of these stores, ask around about any possible jobs…” she drawled off.

Oh. Now he gets it.

“Well I can come with you. Might be good to find myself a job too.” Lucy frowned.

“Michael we’ve been over this.”

“I know but,” Sam’s head whipped back and forth as Michael and Lucy began to argue.

“No Michael, you’re still going to school.”

“Oh come on! It’s only summer time!”

“And you should be enjoying it!”

“How? I don’t really have much money and I have no friends!” Sam tried to speak up.

“Well I’m sorry about that but you shouldn’t be worrying about making money. We just can’t spend like we want to that’s all.”

“Mom why can’t you just let me help?”

“Because Michael, it’s not your job to take care of us and it shouldn’t be.”

“I’m not taking care of you I’m just,”

“Guys!” Sam finally blurted. His face had grown red with embarrassment as he noticed random strangers listening in even though they were pretending to be distracted with whatever they were looking at.

“How about Michael and I go take a look around and if we happen to find anything promising we’ll tell you about it. But we won’t go out of our way to look for jobs!” Sam said the last part quickly and pointed at Lucy. “Ok?” Lucy and Michael sighed heavily and rolled their bodies away to the right before relenting and letting out a nod.

“Fine. Go have fun, and don’t go looking for jobs for yourself.” Lucy pinned Michael with a hard glare.

“Fine. But if I see something part time or small I might take it.” he nearly jumped and held up a hand in defense. “I need gas money for my bike! Nothing full time just odd jobs.” Lucy frowned but nodded in agreement.

“Alright.” Sam grabbed Michael’s hand and dragged him down the road away from Lucy.

Lucy watched the boys. Michael looked back and wondered why she seemed so uptight and stressed out tonight. She was fine for most of the day, so why so much worry all of a sudden?

 

~~~~~

 

Lucy saw the small boy crying in the middle of the walkway and her heart hurt at the sight of it. The boy looked lost and confused. For a moment she couldn’t help but to see Michael and wondered if that’s how he looked before the stranger came and dragged him away all those years ago.

“Excuse me,” she tucked her skirt beneath her thighs as she crouched down in front of the boy. “Are you lost?” The boy nodded. “Do you know where your mom or dad went?” he shook his head. “Oh dear, well come on, maybe they wandered into a store?”

The small child took her hand and she walked into the nearest store. She doubted she find the parent here, but it was worth a shot. The bright and welcoming looking video store seemed promising either way.

“Hello,” she greeted the man standing at the counter away from the main store entrance. He turned and gave her a polite smile. “Do you happen to know where this boy’s mother went?” Maybe the kid was a local? Maybe the man would recognize the boy, or has seen the parent looking around earlier.

Before their interaction went on much longer Lucy was surprised when a young woman ran in crying the boys name and dragged him out with barely a thank you thrown in Lucy’s general direction.

Lucy smiled and shrugged. Happy that the incident was over with so quickly. But the man, Max, presented her with a small lollipop before she could say goodbye.

“That was a very nice thing to do.” Lucy shrugged but accepted the treat.

“I just hate to see children lost and crying. It reminds me of when mine was nearly kidnapped.” Max softly smiled and nodded.

“Stray children can always be worrisome. You never know what’s going to happen to them if no one’s there to look out for them.” Lucy tried to continue the conversation when something caught her eye.

A group of four boys had been browsing the videos and eyeballing Max and Lucy when Max turned and snapped at them.

“Hey! I told you to never come in here.” The boys turned slightly, all with smirks on their faces. Lucy’s eyes drifted over them and paused at the last.

It was hard to see him from the side, but he looked so familiar.

Why did he seem so familiar?

They left just as quickly and Lucy’s eyes trailed after them. A foreboding feeling ate away at her as she tried to bring up why he seemed to familiar. Like an old friend…

“Well, I have to say you must certainly be new around here. I’d remember a face like yours. I’m Max.” Lucy distractedly turned back to Max, although her eyes kept trailing back to the door.

“Lucy. And - Oh, uh, well yes. Just moved back with my boys. Um,” she suddenly felt out of her element. This felt so wrong, why did it feel so wrong?

“Divorce?” Lucy swallowed and gave a small embarrassed smile and nodded.

“Yes actually.” She tried to push down that uneasy feeling and looked Max straight in the eyes. There was no point in dilly-dallying about information at this point in her life. “Just moved back in with my dad. It’s kind of embarrassing really. I was hoping to find a job soon too,” before she could continue on to ask Max if he knew of any openings around town he cut her off.

“Ah well, I actually have an opening here if you’re interested. Um - if that’s not too forward of me to say.” Lucy looked at him, surprised.

“Really? But you don’t even know anything about me!”

“Well,” Max shrugged. “I know you’re a wonderful, kind woman with children whose in dire need of a job. I think that’s plenty good.” Lucy almost felt relieved.

“Oh thank you so much. I promise I’ll do my best.” Max nodded as they shook hands.

“I look forward to working with you, Lucy.”

They promised to discuss the job and pay tomorrow and Lucy left feeling a touch of relief. In time she might find that there’s a catch to this job, perhaps Max was secretly a creep, or the job didn’t have many hours available. But for now she wanted to just pretend that everything would be ok.

She deserved that much.

Because Lucy in her life had to learn many hard lessons, and the most important one so far had been that good things should be appreciated as much as possible because you never knew when that next wind was going to sweep you off your feet.

She made it back out onto the main walking path. Lucy was barely out of sight of the video store when it happened. Over the loud music playing from the speakers surrounding the stores she could just barely hear the rumble of the engines. The sudden fleeing motion the people on the street beside her made her freeze up with worry before the roaring engines began to circle around her.

Raucous laughter and a shout of “Lookin GOOD Little Momma!” pierced through the ambient noise of the boardwalk. Lucy knew immediately it was the group of boys that were all but chased out of the video store. She didn’t know why they chose to target her, maybe it was because they didn’t like how she looked at them or something, but this was beyond what Lucy was willing to handle right now.

“BOYS!” She set a hard glare at the group as their bikes came to a stop.

The tall skinny blonde with wild hair shot her a look and smirked while his eyes dragged across her body. A lump began to form in her throat as she felt a spark of a memory from her childhood. The shorter blonde with crazy curls snickered from her right. The tall dark and stoic one smirked silently as his gaze drifted between her and his friends. That foreboding feeling dragged across her once more as she began to recall the rumors from her childhood.

Engines roared once more as she began to turn and although he was already turning away from her, Lucy recognized that face.

“David,” she said monotonously. He paused and finally turned to look back at her with a dark unimpressed look. Almost like he was bored with her already.

And. And oh god. He looked exactly the same as she remembered. Maybe less friendly, but there were no wrinkles. He still had that baby fat on his cheeks. His jacket was newer but everything else was exactly the same.

And then Lucy recalled all of the rumors she heard as a child and teenager. Whispers about the dangers of wandering alone at night along the boardwalk. Her father’s rage when he discovered that she sneaked off to a party on the beach.

The boys really didn’t look all that different from way back then. Just minor style changes.

“David,” she began again, the fear made her voice tremble but she stepped forward and held out a hand all the same. His eyes flitted over towards his friends in a casual roll.

Lucy didn’t know much about vampires. But she knew now without a doubt.

She knew exactly when and where Michael met the one that probably marked him.

“What are your intentions with Michael.”

“OOOOHHHHHH!!!” the crazy haired blonde nearly screamed. The other two echoed, one with a high pitched snicker, the other sounded deeply amused.

David’s eyebrows raised up and he reeled back, looking Lucy over with a look of dismay and confusion. He clearly never expected her to know anything.

“David’s got a massive crush!” the loud crazy blonde all but yelled. David sneered at him over Lucy’s shoulder.

“AAAHAHAHAHAA!” the other blonde laughed loudly. The kind that implied he was holding his stomach.

“Please don’t eat my son.” she heard more snickers from behind her. They were REALLY amused by this weren’t they? David shook his head with a frown of disbelief.

“I wasn’t really planning on it.” loud snickers took over and Lucy saw the two blondes smacking towards each other as they held hands over their mouths as if to contain any dirty comments Lucy KNEW they had to have brewing.

“Well then,” Lucy settled another hard look on him. “What ARE you planning?” Maybe it was presumptuous to think she could demand anything of a ruthless vampire that nearly terrorized every human in its wake. But as a mother and a return resident of Santa Carla, Lucy felt like she definitely had to put her foot down.

David pinned her with a look.

“I think you’re confused.”

“No, i’m not.” She crossed her arms and tapped her foot. “You ARE the one that marked Michael, aren’t you?”

“Oh my god! She HAS YOU PEGGED!” the crazy blonde roared. “Ow!” someone smacked him real hard behind Lucy’s back. David frowned.

“I,” he paused and looked lost. Clearly it wasn’t often that someone had a one up on David. He must not be used to being thrown curve balls.

Lucy recalled what the other boy said earlier.

“He said you have a crush on my boy,” she gestured to the other one casually. “Is that true?” David’s expression turned sour.

“So what if I like him? What are you going to do about it?”

Lucy nearly wanted to sigh in exasperation. He was being EXACTLY like Michael when the other boy flat out didn’t want to admit to something to Lucy. Michael acted the exact same way when he wanted to cover up the fact that he got into another fight with a bully, when another one of his dates went badly, or like that time he had a small accident on the bike and didn’t want to admit it to Lucy and tried to cover it up instead.

She knew from experience. That was most likely a yes coming from David. He was just too proud to actually admit it.

But once more, Lucy knew she really couldn’t stop David if he seriously wanted to get at Michael. The least she could do is make a simple request.

“Nothing, really. I guess I really can’t stop you if you decide to go after him. But I’d like to ask you for one small favor.” she didn’t wait to see anyone’s reaction. “Michael only has a year left before he graduates. It’s been a pain trying to get him to stay in school and not drop out and I’d like for him to at least finish.” David scoffed but didn’t say yes or no, merely glowered at her. “I don’t know what your intentions are in the long run, but no matter what, i’m sure you’ve been around for quite some time. Another year surely won’t kill you.”

“Anything else?” David grumbled. He was clearly unhappy and maybe Lucy was overstepping her boundaries here, but she couldn’t just walk away from this interaction without an attempt at negotiating.

“Plenty.” she snipped at him. “But I think i’ve probably already asked for more than you are willing to give.”

“Oh you have NO idea!” the loud blonde butted in. Lucy really didn’t want to think about what that meant.

The boys roared off on their bikes before Lucy could say anything else and she continued her trek down the road. Now significantly shakier and worried than before. Strangers who had witnessed her interaction with the boys now gave her a wide berth as if being even a little close to her would spell their deaths. Lucy honestly couldn’t blame them.

Perhaps a different mother would have asked for more. Begged for her sons life. Grabbed them and flee the city ASAP. But Lucy knew that a vampire would honestly only give as much time as he was willing to give. She never interacted with any in any serious manner, she couldn’t assume that he’d be gracious and give her as much time as she desired with her children.

Fuck, she’d be lucky if she even made it past tonight. Her little demands might be the very thing that ensured her family’s death.

But David had waited. He waited for twelve years after his first meeting with Michael. He had multiple opportunities to take Michael away and he hadn’t done so and Lucy could only hope this meant that David was more than willing to be patient. Willing to wait until the moment was right.

Lucy could only hope that Michael would make it past this summer, past his senior year of high-school. And in the meantime…

Ok. Maybe it’s time Lucy sat down and researched vampires… Just in case.

 

~~~~~

 

“Oh man! That was too good!” Paul snickered and tossed the burger wrapper at Marko whom glowered at the blonde.

If Star wasn’t currently working on his hair he might be more inclined to actually retaliate.

Maybe later…

Star looked at Paul, Dwayne, and David with a hesitant look on her face. She seemed uncomfortable and unsure but not ready to speak her mind.

“Star you totally missed it! The look on David’s face was priceless when,”

“Shut up already.” David hissed. He tossed the football at Paul and landed a hit on his face which sent Paul sprawling off of his chair.

“I,” Star hesitated.

Dwayne helped Laddie climb up onto his back and walked off with the boy to get him cleaned up for the night. He promised to take turns with Star since none of the other boys were all that inclined to help out with things that they considered to be a parent’s job. Entertainment yes, but actual adult stuff like getting cleaned up, eating proper food, and enforcing a good bedtime? No.

“Speak up, Star.” David drawled and leaned back into his wheelchair. He didn’t bother looking at the girl as she finished up Marko’s hair.

Marko jumped up from his spot in front of her on the bed and bounced to behind her. He gently took the brush from her hand and began to work through her curls with as much gusto as a toddler getting to play with their new favorite toy with an odd reverence and carefulness that couldn’t typically be expected from them.

“I don’t really understand David…” she drawled, at a loss for words. “I was going to do it. I thought you guys wanted me to but…”

“Yeah, but that one belongs to David!” Paul called from the floor. He began to smoke a joint and like the lazy asshole that he can be, decided to not get up from the floor while doing it.

“Belongs?”

“David’s been hunting that kid for twelve years.” Marko mumbled, he was far too focused on his current job for the moment. David let out a dramatic sigh and rolled his head back.

“You make it sound like i’ve been stalking him.”

“He’s the one that came up with our name actually!” Marko suddenly bounced on the bed as the memory brought forth some excitement. “Although once we heard that he thought of David as Peter Pan we lost our shit!” he giggled as he continued to brush through Star’s locks.

“Oh…” Star frowned. David let out a deep unnecessary breath as he stood up from the wheelchair and approached the bed. He sat at the edge, one knee resting up on the side just enough to that he could face inward comfortably towards Star and Marko.

“Don’t get too down about it anyhow.” He stared Star down and took her hand. “I don’t think you really wanted to kill him anyway.” And unfortunately he was right.

“But,” Star swallowed. “I have to do it eventually. Don’t I?” David didn’t let his gaze waver and Star looked away.

“You don’t actually want to join us.”

A part of Star felt guilty. She felt saddened by the truth. Embarrassed that despite her best efforts, she just couldn’t keep the truth from David.

Even though the connection was weak due to her half-vamp status, she ended up being unable to hide her biggest secret from David. Sure, their sire had no idea of her attempted treachery, but David made a point to know his pack inside out and poked his nose into many thoughts.

Not all of them, but enough. Like a nagging big brother trying to make sure his little sister was happy and not bullied by the group of horny jocks at school.

Star stared down at the bed sadly. If these boys weren’t undead, if she could still dance in the sun and the spray of the ocean without feeling ill, maybe she’d want to stay. But Star couldn’t bear to let herself take that final step. Especially when poor Laddie still needed her.

If she took that dive then Laddie would be on his own.

“I still can’t believe that Bitch.” Paul grumbled from his spot on the floor.

Paul got up and scampered over towards the bed but remained seated on the ground, choosing to lean against David’s leg instead of sitting on the bed with the others. David nodded and let a hand pet the top of Paul’s head. Paul practically melted and let out a happy rumble in his chest.

“I’ve tried speaking with Max about her and the other packs but he’s disinclined to believe that we aren’t the ones to blame.” David let out an irritated huff. 

“To be fair, we have been getting into a lot of trouble lately.” Marko hummed as he went back to brushing out a particularly tenacious knot.

“Either way, this is a problem we’re going to have to deal with sooner rather than later. If we don’t, it’s only going to become a bigger problem for us later down the road.” Star resisted the urge to duck away when Marco found a small knot in her hair.

“Agnes is…” she began. “She won’t be easy to take down without some help and if our sire doesn’t want to do anything about it… well I don’t see what we can really do.”

David tapped the covers of the bed lightly.

“I don’t think Agnes gives nearly as much credit and respect to her underlings as we do ours so I doubt we could send in a double agent.” Paul snorted at the thought. “It’s not like we have access to anyone that would suffice for a job like that anyhow.”

“And if any of us go over to speak with her she might just have us killed on sight just because she can. Max probably wouldn’t care too.” Marco sounded irritated.

Star sat still as Marco began to braid up her hair. For some reason that was his favorite thing to do with her hair, he insisted doing it even when Star really didn’t want it that way. She’d let him braid it for now though and undo it tomorrow. There was no point fighting him about it this close to bedtime. Paul peered over David’s thighs and nearly jumped up onto the bed.

“MY TURN!” Marco scoffed.

“Paul, you have too much product in your hair. You need to wash it out first.” Star said softly.

Paul let out a whine. David shoved Paul off of his lap and onto the floor and Marco giggled while tying off Star’s hair with a hair-tie.

Silently Dwayne carried Laddie back into the room and settled the small boy down onto his bed.

“The only person we could send to Agnes that wouldn’t die immediately would be our sire himself.” Dwayne tucked Laddie into bed while he put in his two cents on their conversation.

“Hmmm,” David turned to look at Star. She met eyes with him, curious as to what David was thinking about since his expression was blank. “That might work.”

“What would work?” Paul kicked up at Dwayne when Dwayne came over and nudged him with his foot. They were having a silent argument from the looks of it.

“We send Max to Agnes. If Agnes thinks that Max KNOWS about her attempt to ruin his clan she might lash out and if she directly attacks him first then he’ll most likely retaliate. Maybe they’ll kill each other. Maybe they wont. But either way, so long as one of them is removed from the equation it’ll lighten our own load. Less mess for us to personally deal with.”

“Clean-up duty sucks.” Marco agreed and leaned back on the bed behind Star now that he was finished. Dwayne and Paul were wrestling now until finally Paul darted off towards the wash room like a kicked puppy.

“But why would she think that Max knows what she did?” Star looked away from Paul and Dwayne back to David.

“You call her and tell her.” Dwayne mumbled, now sitting at the foot of the bed.

Laddie sleepily watched the group of boys from his bed. He was clearly struggling to keep his eyes open and listen but their conversation didn’t mean a whole lot to him since he didn’t know about Agnes Underwood or how Star was sent to try and destroy the Lost Boys from the inside. He didn’t understand the implications and importance of Max and Agnes and their stakes in California and Santa Carla. He didn’t sense the faint light of hope in Star’s dying heart at the thought that Max could possibly be the one to die in this encounter.

“But first,” David pinned Laddie with a stare, mentally commanding the child to go to sleep. “I need to convince him to go.” he was speaking about their sire.

They all sat in silence and thought over the plan. Eventually David sent Star to make sure that Paul wasn’t just fucking around instead of cleaning himself. For some reason the vampire was extremely spoiled and loved having others clean his hair for him.

Pampered brat.

Marco all but dragged Dwayne to the side and away from David just so that he could brush through the other’s hair easily. David stood up once more and retreated to his seat, counting the hour down to their own personal bedtime. He watched Laddie now asleep in his bed and thought about a worry he had yet to voice to his pack.

The others must have sensed it. Dwayne, Marco, Paul. It wasn’t hard to tell when Max found a new lady that interested him, one that he wanted to try and turn. But this was the first one in a long time that had a family of her own already.

This one has Michael.

Max didn’t need to do so much as shoot David an errant thought, an emotion and desire, for David to understand what he was being commanded to do. Find the woman’s boys, pull them into the group and turn them, make them apart of the family.

To be fair, David was already planning on bringing Michael into their world. Right now it was only a matter of time. But David met Sam and Lucy. Spoke with them enough to know that they wouldn’t cut it, wouldn’t be able to make the change and remain amongst his pack as a mostly sane monster.

Not everyone’s cut out for vampirism.

Max already crossed a very dangerous line when he gave Laddie his blood. David warned Max about Star’s fragility and hesitance and instead of speaking with the girl and learning the reason as to WHY she didn’t want to become a vampire, he simply found the small boy and decided to turn him on a whim. A little brother for her to look out for. Someone more helpless than she. She’d need to be strong for him right?

Sometimes ‘parents’ could just be so dense.

Once upon a time, maybe long before David ever met him, Maximilian must have been like a thick strong rope. Reliable and tough but ever so helpful. But now Max was more like twine, slowly unwinding and ripping and tearing. And only a few strands now remained.

If David didn’t remove Max soon they’d have bigger problems on their hands. His once father figure, calm and gentle and reasonable, was a liability. And David wasn’t entirely sure if he has what it takes to land the final blow just yet.

So maybe it was a coward’s way to solving a problem. Sending Max into Agnes’s den to let them take care of each other. But if Max died then David wouldn’t have to worry about Lucy and Sam and Michael getting hurt by the crazy vampire. And if Agnes died and Max survived, well surely that means that Max would now see the truth and learn to trust his boys a little more. Finally take action against the the rabid rogue vampires and their clans in California.

David bet werewolves never had these kinds of problems. Lucky bastards.

“Come on David!” Marco hollered as he all but chased Paul down the hall towards their personal sleeping den. David had been so distracted by his thoughts that he didn’t even notice when the group were all done pampering one another.

“I’ll be there in a moment.” David stretched as he stood up and staggered over towards Star who was sitting on the bed, watching David with a calm relaxed expression. A rare one really if only because of how honest it was.

“Good morning David.” Star sent him a sheepish smile but he felt the budding anxiety from underneath. The poor girl was like Marco when he first changed. Always unsure and anxious, coming up with new things to be uneasy over if left to their own devices for too long.

“Try to get some actual rest, ok?” he brushed aside her bangs and watched her eyes close as his fingers drifted across her temple. “You’re doing fine, just try to hold on ok?” _I’ll fix this_ went unsaid.

Star nodded and he sat and watched as she laid down and quickly drifted off to sleep.

Tomorrow he’d have to speak with Max about Agnes, convince him to go visit the woman. She still lives up in Luna Bay so Star would have more than enough time to call the woman and give her the warning. Star already proved herself to be an excellent actor so this should be easy.

Hopefully.

 

~~~~~

 

Lucy sat and watched the dark sky, she focused on the stars that she could see and tried to recall which set of stars made up each constellation. The moon shined bright in the sky and idly Lucy wondered if she would see any bats flying around tonight.

"Mom?" Michael called out quietly as the door squeaked open. "What are you doin up?" Lucy nearly jumped and laid a hand over her heart as though that would stop it's rushing pace.

"Oh Michael, I just couldn't get to sleep. I guess I was just having one of those nights where the thoughts wouldn't stop." What she really meant was that she was worrying so relentlessly that she couldn't relax enough to fall asleep, but Michael already knew that. There wasn't much point in saying that anymore because Lucy was always worrying over something. "What about you?"

Michael shrugged and settled down on the chair next to Lucy with his own glass of water.

"I'm just not tired. I tried to lay down and count it out but I guess it just doesn't cut it tonight." Lucy nodded.

"Was Sam asleep when you got up?" Michael nodded.

"Yeah. He passed out about an hour ago. I had to turn off his flashlight for him." He paused. "I left it on the nightstand just in case..." There was a few years in Sam's childhood where the poor boy just couldn't go a week without having a nightmare. Michael and Lucy convinced him that the flashlight would scare away any monster if they ever did happen to get into the house.

"Actually..." Michael licked his lips and took a sip of his water. "I guess I'm kind of having one of those nights too." Lucy waited patiently for him to continue. "It's just... This place is so weird. I keep feeling like I’ve been here before and heard Grandpa's silly tirades and it shouldn’t be this familiar… But it is.” Lucy watched Michael’s troubled expression and felt guilty.

“That’s probably because you have been here before Michael.” He shot her an inquisitive look. He always did when they had this conversation but Michael just couldn’t seem to remember that either.

“When? When I was like two?” Lucy nodded.

“And six, and eleven. Sam was here too, twice.” She curled her legs up and held onto her ankles. It was like a modified hug. “You were almost taken from us when you were six. Someone saved you though. And then when we came back the next time someone was nice enough to buy Sam those comics about Alaska. That’s where he got Nanook’s name from actually.” Michael looked like he desperately wanted to remember but just couldn’t.

It was the same every time.

Lucy already knew that both times Michael had met with David. One of the boys in the group even got Sam those comics. So maybe that was why they couldn’t remember the trips? Maybe David erased their memories?

Lucy could hazard a guess as to why David felt like it was necessary to do so, but man, talk about ruining some special family memories. For YEARS Lucy felt guilty and confused and unsure about the reason’s behind Michael and Sam’s memory loss. It’s kind of rude really.

She thought she did something wrong.

But no. It’s just vampires. Because that makes everything better, right?

“Hey mom?” Michael blinked. The wave of confusion slipped away. “What are you doing up so late?” Lucy sighed heavily and smiled softly.

Vampires can be such assholes.

“I was just trying to remember some constellations. I used to know all of them.” Michael huffed out a small laugh.

“Really?” Lucy nodded.

“Oh yes, I LOVED the night sky when I was your age. I used to sneak out to study the stars and Grandpa would get so irritated with me.” Lucy winked at Michael. “One time I even sneaked out to go to a party I was forbidden from going to. BOY was your grandfather mad. He grounded me for a week!” Michael softly smiled at Lucy and looked out at the sky.

“What’s that one?” he pointed randomly. Lucy bit her tongue and hummed.

“You know… I have no idea.” they both laughed softly. “We almost named you Moonchild actually.”

“Oh no,” Lucy nodded.

“Yup. But your grandmother BEGGED me to keep that as a silly little nickname and give you a normal ‘proper’ name instead.”

“Thank god for small miracles.” Lucy laughed a little.

“You know, it took me a few weeks to think of an actual name for you. Originally I wanted to call you Moonchild because it seemed like you were always sleeping during the day but awake at night. It took me forever to fix your sleep schedule.” Michael shook his head.

“I don’t think you really ever managed to fix it, if that’s the case.” Lucy nodded.

“No, I don’t think I did.” She studied Michael’s current calm energy. He seemed to just radiate it, especially at night.

Once upon a time Lucy was told that she practically radiated that calm motherly type energy that just soothed the people around her. Nowadays though, she feels like the only thing she radiates is stress. She could only hope that Michael wouldn’t become the same.

Lucy stood up and grabbed her empty glass. She stopped next to Michael and brushed a hand through his hair wearily. All of a sudden she felt exhausted and just couldn’t wait to get to sleep. She placed a soft kiss on Michael’s temple.

“You know, I don’t think you ever stopped being my Moonchild.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have so much work to do and i'm just tired. Luckily I got an extra day off this week because I traded shifts (and ended up working a double, which SUCKS but oh well.) and my roommates are gone for the weekend so I don't need to worry about socializing like a normal human. Instead I can spend all that free time attempting productivity.
> 
> Now if only I could channel most of that productivity into editing my damn book. I wanna be finished with my bigger projects by the end of the year. Originally I was aiming to be done by July but day-jobs get in the way of my work a lot. WISH ME LUCK GUYS TT.TT


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who says that vampires can't feel emotions? That they can't feel guilt or admiration or rage? You'd think that with being connected as a pack, betrayal and loss would easily become the worst possible feeling. Even as they accept the consequences and try to move on, that betrayal will follow you, dangling from your back like a broken knife.
> 
> Loss is still loss, no matter how you look at it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honest to god don't know how I managed to write this chapter. I was having such a hard time coming up with what was going to happen next, and being exhausted from work just doesn't help one bit - but here we are! I think I decided a few chapters ago that no matter what, I kind of wanted this story to be a bit different from all of the other ones I read. I wanted it to go in a slightly different direction, and I'm hoping that it's working out well so far.
> 
> I honestly can't tell anymore.

“Really? That’s odd, I don’t think i’ve heard from Ms. Underwood in almost a century now.” David shrugged and gently poked at the dust free porcelain statue.

Max’s house was always clean and free of dust, it might be easier on the old Vampire’s nose for sure, but David was used to the stench of death and decay. Musty curtains and ocean spray. The dandruff scent of bird’s feathers and hairspray and sugar coated treats. Greasy food and fire drums and alcohol.

This house had nearly no scent that gave it any kind of personality aside from the fire place and scented candles Max likes to light every now and then. None of the items Max purchased to occupy his home had any sort of outside scent left on them. David briefly wondered where all that went, all of Max’s history and life experiences that culminated in some kind of personality that wasn’t bland and fake. The colorful decorations might fool some people, but it can’t hide the truth from David.

“Well I can only assume that Star was meant to be an apology for it.” David kept his mind blank, like a wall of boredom and disinterest. Max would be more inclined to believe David so long as he kept up his usual appearance. “She sent a message asking for you to come see her the other night as well. Guess she has something important she wishes to discuss with you in person.” Max nodded and adjusted his tie whilst facing the mirror. Not that he could see himself in it.

David looked around the bedroom his sire chose to sleep in during the day. His coffin sat in the center of the room upon a stone pedestal which to David was an odd sight because the rest of the room was still stylized like a typical human’s bedroom. Max worked so hard to put on the display of a human even though there was no one to perform for. If Max was actually interested in these little trinkets and had others living with him perhaps the display would make more sense, but this was nothing more than a sad attempt to fill a hole at this point.

“I don’t know David.” Max put his collar down over the tie and adjusted the fit slightly. “I just hired Lucy at the store and this is awfully short notice.” David faced away from Max and did his best to not roll his eyes. Max would notice it.

“I’m sure you can get someone to cover your shift tomorrow night at least, Lucy could probably do it.” Max started to speak up but David didn’t let him. “We’ll start working on the boys while you’re gone too.” Max rolled his head slightly and stared David down.

David wasn’t totally lying. Sure he ignored Max’s rambles about humans and working life, but he retained enough to know that Lucy really only needed a few hours of training and they could easily do that tonight or tomorrow. Max could even let his supervisor do the training. It wasn’t hard to do. And as for Sam and Michael… Well David wasn’t really intending on doing much with Sam, but Michael he could at least work on getting closer to. If Max did survive this encounter and David hasn’t even started any of the process then David would be punished for sure.

“I suppose you’re right.” Max shot David a small smile and patted his child on the shoulder. “I’ll go tomorrow night then. I’ll leave the Emersons and Santa Carla to you to take care of until I get back.”

David let himself out. He didn’t acknowledge the small sensation of pride and approval Max shot his way. He couldn’t.

He already felt guilty enough as is.

 

~~~~~

 

Michael was feeling antsy again. Sure he spent a good portion of his day picking up trash for some cash, but after a short nap he felt the burst of energy commanding him to go do something. Anything.

The sun had already set in the sky and Michael just needed to… go.

“Hey Mike!” Sam stumbled off of his bed and followed Michael downstairs. “Mom’s gonna be at work for a few more hours. I guess they decided to train her tonight. You want to go do something?” Michael played with his keys and pouted at Sam.

He really didn’t want to be stuck with his brother again tonight, but it’s not like either of them had anything better to do. Plus Sam might get bratty if he doesn’t get the energy out somehow. A trip to the boardwalk might work.

“Fine,” Mike huffed. “I was thinking of checking out the boardwalk again.” Sam all but chased after Michael, stumbling to get his shoes on as he followed Michael out the door.

“We didn’t really look around at the shops all that much yesterday. Were you planning on looking for another job?” Michael didn’t dignify Sam’s question with a response. He really wasn’t planning on that.

He wasn’t planning on doing much of anything actually…

“We’ll see.” He finally responded when Sam took a few seconds too long to hop on behind Michael.

 

~~~~~~

 

Sam watched Michael carefully as they wandered through the crowd, studying his brother’s reactions whilst trying to act casual. Every now and then Michael’s eyes would wander around the crowd of tourists. Whether he was keeping an eye on his surroundings to be safe, or he was looking for someone, Sam wasn’t too sure. At first he wanted to believe that Michael was looking for that girl but Sam wasn’t too sure about that.

So Sam practically led Michael through the crowd, the elder brother seemed much too distracted by his surveying. His eyes almost seemed blank, like he wasn’t even aware of what he was looking for. Sam held onto Michael’s wrist the entire time, nudging him to the side or dragging him as he saw necessary.

“She’s probably not even here Michael.” Sam poked his brother in the side. Michael snapped out of his trance and looked down at Sam.

“What are you talking about? I’m just lookin' around.” Sam rolled his eyes. This was the third time he had to drag Michael out of the trance and it was starting to get annoying.

“Nothing. Just come on. I wanna check out what’s this way.” Michael’s head rolled back as Sam dragged him down the road.

“Oh come on, don’t you have anything better to do than follow me around all night?”

“Yeah….” Sam’s eyes drifted up towards the signs and windows of the store in front of him. His eyes lit up as the small smile danced to his lips.

Michael watched, bemused, as Sam quickly let go of his arm and practically ran into the comic book store. For a moment Michael felt lost as he stared into the store while Sam began to pick through the comics with practiced ease. Sam almost looked lonely for a moment, like he should really have someone in there with him digging through the comics and similarly, Michael felt lonely at the thought that he should really have at least one person standing there next to him to keep him company.

Michael shook his head and frowned as he looked down the street. Watching Sam look at comics in this store made him feel weird and judging from the look in his eyes, Sam seems to be feeling a little weird about this store as well. Although that expression might be the fault of two other teenagers lurking within the store who wouldn’t stop staring Sam down in a poor attempt of intimidation. Michael stomped off. There’s no point in trying to drag Sam away from comics before he’s ready.

Instead, Michael’s eyes landed on the numerous clothing shops that littered the boardwalk. It didn't miss his attention which fashions were popular in this town, just driving in on the first day, Michael saw more than enough leather and skin and right now he was leaning more towards the leather. Sure, his muscles painted a pretty nice picture, but Michael wasn’t inclined to run around without a shirt on. At least the leather would protect him if he were to get into an accident.

Soon enough he dug through the rack and found one he thought might be perfect. It wasn’t too bland, too long, too…different. His mother couldn’t get mad at him for buying something like this, in fact, she’d probably be flabbergasted that they didn’t think to buy him a leather jacket sooner. Plus, this one was nice enough that it could probably impress some pretty little thing.

With this he could fit in easily. No one would take a look at him and think “he doesn’t belong here”. No one would think “he’s in over his head”. No one would think…

Why does he care so much what an imaginary person thinks? When did Michael ever care about other people’s opinions?

Michael shrugged on the jacket and continued down the boardwalk. He noticed the ear piercing cart with a patron being prepped. For a moment he thought about getting his own ears done, jewelry and piercings seemed to be pretty big here too…

No. Not yet.

He backed away from the cart and paused to look around the crowd once more.

Michael swore that someone had been watching him almost all night. Ever since they got here. But so far there was no one.

He inched back over to his bike and leaned against the rail overlooking the water and beach. Michael watched the crowd and contemplated whether or not he should go retrieve Sam. Something just didn’t sit right with him, but what was it?

“Excuse me,” Michael’s eyes snapped down towards a boy about Sam’s height, maybe a little taller. His hair was blonde and curly to high hell and Michael wondered what kind of braid the kid did just to achieve those curls.

This however wasn’t the biggest thing Michael noticed about the teenager.

The smirk on his face made him look more like an imp and the smile didn’t dissipate even as he bit at one of his fingers. The kid swayed slightly as his eyes drifted across Michael’s dirt bike. The motion drew Michael’s eyes to his colorful coat which was done up in multiple patches of various colors, patterns, and trinkets.

“Yeah?” Michael swallowed the lump in his throat. For a moment he felt like he should know who this was.

“Is this your bike?” the boy’s head tilted slightly with a sway.

“Um… yeah.” His grin turned sharp and Michael saw a glint in his eyes. It was a glint he knew very well because Sammy had the same look when he was planning on messing with Michael.

“Does it work?” Michael scoffed and tried to not roll his eyes.

“Yeah it works just fine. Though it really can’t race with any of those.” he gestured down the boardwalk towards the two other motorcycles.

The boy nodded and finally let go.

“Racing’s fun but it’s not everything. So long as you can keep up with the others you’ll be fine.” Michael looked over the kid again incredulously. 

“Do you ride?” The smile grew and he nodded vigorously.

“Yeah, we all do. That one’s mine and the other’s is Dwayne’s. One time Paul kicked up a load of mud onto Dwayne’s bike and he got so mad that he shoved Paul into the mud and held his head there.” the boy cackled. “It was hilarious! I wish you could have seen it!”

Well, the bikes were certainly nice but Michael has NO IDEA who any of these people were. It kind of irritated him though. He really should know these people…

“And you are?” Marko flicked out a cigarette and lit it.

“I’m Marko!” he took a puff.

“Michael,” Marko laughed softly like this amused him.

“Are you just a tourist Michael or are you planning on staying?” Marko held out the cigarette for Michael. Reluctantly, he took it and took a short puff before handing it back.

“Just moved in with my mom and brother.” Marko clapped and hooted.

“Welcome to the neighborhood then, brother!”

Michael felt a little uneasy. Back in Arizona there wasn’t really a trend of calling each other brother. He knew that supposedly surfers would call each other dudes but movies tend to exaggerate and lie. So far Marko seemed nice enough, but the boy had this energy that put him on edge and it was starting to make his head hurt.

Michael looked up, wondering if Sam was done yet with his comic hunting and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Sammy walking his way… with another teenager that was bigger than him.

This one for some reason chose to not wear a shirt underneath his leather jacket and the assortment of necklaces he wore did nothing to hide his chest. Sam didn’t seem all that perturbed by this kid though, judging from the animated way he was speaking to this stranger. The stranger nodded as Sam clearly talked his ear off.

For a moment Michael felt more embarrassed than anything else.

 

~~~~~

 

"He looked absolutely precious!" Marko clapped and laughed while rocking on the arm of the couch. "He got himself this cute little leather jacket, I'm gonna pimp out that jacket once he joins us!"

David stared Marko down with the most unimpressed look he could muster but everyone knew he was a little jealous. Paul smirked in his corner while he worked on rolling a new set of blunts. Dwayne looked over the monster comic he swiped from Sam earlier and clicked his tongue in dismay.

Star looked over with a weary expression on her face while she brushed out Laddie’s hair. They sat comfortably on the bed surrounded by pillows and blankets. Laddie took an extra sip from the wine bottle despondently.

"So what's the plan David?" Paul sang out David's name.

"Which plan?" Dwayne mumbled as he closed the comic and flicked it in David's direction. David snagged it before it hit the floor.

"What's the damage?" David ignored their digs at him.

"If all of their other comics are like this then we might have some problems. Not everything is accurate but it literally reads as a manual and they're advertising themselves as hunters. The only thing they're missing is a target but so long as we stay off their radar we should be fine."

David nodded. He already told his boys to steer clear of the Frog brothers once they started cleansing their shop with garlic. It didn't actually hurt but the smell could be overpowering and most hunters he ever came across tended to utilize garlic.

“Do you think Max will take the bait?” Star barely spoke up but it didn’t matter. They all could hear her clear as day.

Everyone sat in silence and waited for David to speak up.

“He’ll be heading up tomorrow as soon as the sun sets. Star you still have Agnes’s number don’t you?” Star nodded.

“Unless she changed it recently.” David did his best to not roll his eyes. Of course their plan would work better so long as she still had the same number, but if she happened to change it it’s not like it would be the end of the world.

David just figured some mental warfare might suit their needs better.

“We’ll give Max an hour head start and then you’ll call Agnes to warn her. Now I know you’re a good actor Star, so I expect a great show.”

“What should I say?” David thought about it for a moment.

Laddie was clearly dozing off in Star’s lap, but he seemed to recognize that this was an important conversation and struggled to stay awake for it. Star picked up Laddie and carried him over to his bed when David mentally nudged her to do so.

“Tell her that Max knows about her treachery, that he’s coming and expects an audience with her before he delves out punishment or some bullshit like that.” Star nodded and hushed Laddie as she tucked him in.

“But,” Paul paused in his practiced motions and licked his lips. “But what are we going to do if Max doesn’t die? Or what if Agnes lives?” David tapped the arm of his wheelchair before reaching for his bottle of beer and took a mouthful from it.

“Well it will probably go one of four ways I figured.” Marko spoke up to fill the silence. “One, Max and Agnes both die and we kill two birds with one stone. Two, Max kills Agnes and we destroy whatever left of her clan.” The longer Marko spoke, the more an old accent began to peek through. If David nor the others were connected mentally to one another, this was Marko’s biggest tell of his budding anxiety.

“But then we have to deal with Max.” Paul butted in.

David contemplated whether he should tell Star about Max’s demands, about how he wanted this week to go. The entire Emerson clan were to be turned and Star and Laddie were to finally make their first kills. The bottle Laddie and Star were suckling from tonight was to be their last one. But no, this might cause Star to become more agitated than before and extra stress would only throw her off her game, mess her up mentally and make her more likely to snap.

“Yeah. Then we got numbah three, where Max dies but then we got Agnes fuckin Underwood and her horde to reckon with and that’s an even bigger clean-up than we ever got to deal with before.” Marko’s words began to sound almost slurred with his accent. Dwayne and Paul dropped their tasks and sauntered over towards Marko in a calm manner. Star shot him a worried look before looking back at David whom continued his disinterested facade.

Marko panicking wasn’t anything new to him. The other two could coddle him, but if David broke character then Marko would become unconsolable. Showing weakness as the leader in a situation like this is either a sign that you’re not good enough to be the leader, or that the situation is truly as dire as you feel it is.

“Shhh,” Paul tugged Marko back onto the seat of the couch with himself, patting and scratching gently at Marko’s scalp all the while. Dwayne took seat on the arm of the couch where Marko was previously and brushed as palm against his cheek.

“The fourth option will only be likely to happen if Star can’t get in contact with Agnes.” David finally spoke up. He made eye contact with Marko before looking at each of his siblings. “If Max survives then we’ll have to take care of him. If Agnes survives we’ll have to take care of her. Sure she has a horde but they’re all young and nearly mindless with insanity. We might struggle some, but so long as we remove Agnes from the picture they’ll be pathetically easy to pick off. We may as well let hunters go after her clan, they’re not a problem to us, only Agnes.” Marko nodded.

“No matter what, it might be best to bring in some extra help.” Dwayne didn’t look away from Marko’s face as he continued to pet Marko’s cheek.

“What? Like werewolves?” Marko squeaked. David scoffed.

“I’m not about to pick a fight with the werewolves. You know how they are, they get one whiff of a vampire and all logic flies away. They can barely comprehend the possibility that we might want to actually work with them on something like taking out members of our own kind.” Marko nodded.

“Besides, if they didn’t go after her by now, then they’re not going to. She’s already dangerously close to wolf territory after all.”

Dwayne looked back over towards the comic David dropped aside. His eyes flickered up to David and David sighed heavily. His head rolled back and he did his damnedest to let Dwayne know with his expression how much he didn’t like that idea.

“I don’t even know where we’d find a hunter. I think the last time we had a unit in our territory was about twenty years ago.”

“They’re really slackin’.” Paul muttered as he rocked Marko. Dwayne looked down at the comic once more.

“I know of at least two hunters in our territory.” Paul and Marko looked at Dwayne curiously. Star gasped.

“We can’t use them.” she nearly hissed in her attempt to be quiet since Laddie was still partially awake. He was taking forever to drift off to sleep tonight. “They’re still children.”

David squinted at the comic before looking at Dwayne. Bastard actually looked a little guilty.

“You can’t be talking about the Frog brothers…” David drawled out.

“Oh!” Marko bounced suddenly. “If they die too then we’d wouldn’t have to worry about them bothering us in the future too!” Paul gasped and shoved Marko out of his lap before the boy could pummel the other with his bony ass. “Hey!” Marko snapped.

David hissed and sat up straight in his seat.

“In our time, they would have been considered adults.” Dwayne mumbled. It’s not like he fully agreed with it and it sounded more like a sad excuse.

“They wouldn’t be any good for actual hunting though…” Star muttered. “They’re not exactly a match for a vampire.” Marko jumped up from the ground.

“We could have them go scout for us!” everyone’s eyes snapped back to him. “We train them up a little bit on what to do and then sick em during the day. They could set traps, get a good layout of the dens, and do some research for us!”

“And then once the sun sets BLAM!” Paul slams one fist into his other hand. “We nail the stupid fuckers!” Paul and Marko nodded towards each other excitedly.

“That would be much more helpful than having them with us on an actual hunt.” Dwayne admitted. “But we’d have to convince them to help us.”

“I’ll do it!” Paul raised a hand up and wiggled in his seat.

Marko turned towards Dwayne as the older vampire spoke.

“We’d need someone persuasive. Someone whose massively experienced with manipulating humans.”

“I’m manipulative!” Paul nearly jumped out of his seat this time with his hand still in the air.

“Someone who commands respect. Someone they’d have a hard time questioning or grilling.” Star spoke up from her seat. Dwayne and Marko nodded at her in approval.

“I make a great authority figure!” Paul nearly bounced in his spot before bounding into the center of the trio.

Dwayne and Marko and Star all turned their gaze at David.

“Someone like David.” Marko finished.

“AH MAN!” Paul whined.

David rolled his eyes.

Sometimes they can be such drama queens.

David sighed heavily and nodded in agreement. Marko and Paul would be more likely to fuck with the brothers before killing them and Dwayne tended to be quiet and non-vocal. Manipulating the tenacious Frog brothers might prove to be too difficult for him, not to say that Dwayne wouldn’t appreciate the challenge, but convincing the brothers to help their cause was actually really important.

“We should probably not tell them that we’re vampire too though…right?” Paul didn’t remove the pout from his face.

_Thank you captain obvious._

 

~~~~~

 

Star sniffled as she hung up the phone. She turned away and shot a big smile at Marko and Paul whom threw her a thumbs up at the same time. She wiped away a stray tear and nearly squealed in amusement.

Agnes was PISSED and TERRIFIED and due to the fact that Star didn’t warn her until it was too late, Agnes wouldn’t be able to properly run away before Max tracked her down nor set up a plan of attack. He should be more than half way there by now and Star told her he was leaving right now.

Now all they had to do was wait.

“So,” Marko went to chew at this thumb before Paul knocked his hand away. “Do you think David made his entrance yet?” Paul smirked back at Marko.

“Wanna go ruin it if he hasn’t?” Star tried to not roll her eyes at the boys.

She still didn’t understand David’s apparent obsession with that particular human.

 

~~~~~

 

Michael swore under his breath. Tonight Sam was being particularly bratty, complaining about the supposed irony that is Lucy working at a video store when they themselves don’t even have a tv. As soon as Grandpa left for his date, Sam rounded on Michael and suggested that they go visit mom at work just to see what it’s like. And sure, it was amusing at first to grill her about random things in the store, but once she caught on to their antics she admonished them and kicked them out.

This wasn’t the bratty part. No, Michael really wanted to go home but Sam insisted on visiting the comic book store and whined when Michael told him to just hitch a ride home with mom.

“But i’ll be bored! What if someone tries to kidnap me? Come on, don’t you want to go flirt with a girl or something?”

And no, actually. Sam’s tendency to spend over an hour looking over comics means that Michael would be bored for far longer than Sam would be left by his lonesome. So long as Sam wasn’t being a dumb-ass, it’d be very unlikely that he’d get abducted. And sure, at first Michael was thinking about finding some pretty young thing to have some fun with, but after he saw that bike gang he just felt weird.

There were crews running around everywhere. Normal surfers, beach bunnies, surf nazis, punks, goths, preps. The boardwalk was like school all over again only louder and more crowded. The only nice thing about it was that there was no moral pretense to be forced upon their minds, no ridiculous posters proclaiming school spirit, teachers forcing their opinions onto the students, or stingy faculty members. There was only the stores and sights and crews and while Michael never particularly felt bothered by crowds such as this… Well…

Standing all alone, looking out as people passed him by, Michael felt lonely.

Back in Arizona it took him years to properly cultivate actual friends, despite what Lucy thought. Sure he had his classmates and teammates, but these weren’t really people that cared about what Michael thought or liked or disliked. Not many bothered to spend time outside basic school activities with more than a couple of people and rarely did that ever include Michael. Even when it did, he typically ended up watching others and following along for fun, doing what he could to fit in because he never really felt like he was apart of the group.

Eventually some of his friends proclaimed otherwise when his hesitation became apparent. A few good friends made a point to include him in whatever way they could, even if it was an acknowledgement of a sly comment he made or an invite to an event they knew he had no interest in. A show that they know he doesn’t like those kinds of events, but that the door is always open should he ever need the company.

And those displays did make him feel a touch better. But sometimes that’s just not enough to make someone feel like they’re apart of a group.

Sometimes, the fit just isn’t right.

So right here, right now- Michael remains standing outside the comic book shop and ignores the smell that seems to define the store. Maybe the people that work here are huge fans of Italian food?

Well either way, it’s getting to be too much and he needs to get away from it. At least for a little while.

Michael feels himself drawn in a certain direction and takes off with no hesitation.

 

~~~~~

 

_Oh come on David!_ Paul whined mentally as David snarled back through their link.

“Seriously,” Star sighed, exasperated. “I don’t understand why you won’t just go talk to him.” David glared over at Star.

Despite the grip David has on Paul’s neck, Paul still managed to let out a snicker.

“He can’t just go up and talk to him, he’s gotta make an entrance. Make it memorable.” Star rolled her eyes.

“Boys,” she flapped her hands and moved to step out of the alley David shoved Paul down into. “Where did Marko go?” Star jumped back as a teenager rounded the corner and nearly bumped into her.

“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t see you there.” David paused and looked at the teenager out of the corner of his eye. Paul bellowed out a laugh and shot Michael a toothy grin while David quickly let him go.

The last David saw, before he caught a trace of Paul’s mischievous intention and had to go hunt down his pack mate to stop him, Michael was 100% intent upon waiting outside the comic book store. So the fact that Michael now had somehow magically happened upon them answered Stars question whether she realized it or not.

David absolutely hated it when Marko and Paul decided to properly work together.

“Oh, it’s ok.” Star sheepishly smiled at Michael. She turned around to look at David who looked like he was pouting right now. “I didn’t see you either.” Michael’s eyes flicked up towards David and Paul and paused.

For a moment he looked lost and confused, like he was stuck trying to remember something. David studied the expression glumly before looking away. He turned back with a snarky smile.

“Marko was telling me about you, you’re Michael right?” he turned and brushed past Paul, sticking out a hand as he neared Michael. “The name’s David.”

_Look at him trying to be all cool and smooth when he was just pouting a second ago._ Paul thought loudly.

_Gods you’re so embarrassing sometimes._ Marko popped his head up from the crowd across the street, smirking over at David meanly.

_Do I want to know?_ Dwayne sounded quiet although that was more of an effect of being so far away from the pack. He insisted on taking Laddie out for a few rides while they waited for Star to finish up her call.

_I hate all of you._ David hissed at them mentally.

“Uh, Yeah. I’m Michael.” David saw how Michael restrained a flinch, like he was embarrassed by what he just said. “Although I don’t remember Marko mentioning you.”

“I’m Paul!” Paul nearly threw himself onto David’s back and threw a hand out to shake Michael’s before David could.

_DAMNIT PAUL._

“Got off me,” David hissed and shoved Paul back who fell onto his ass laughing.

Star smothered her mouth with her hand as she tried really hard to not laugh. David sighed heavily and rolled his eyes. He turned back to Michael whom seemed a touch worried, but mostly amused.

“We were just about to go get something to eat. Why don’t you join us?”

Michael seemed unsure for a moment. He watched as Paul climbed back up to his feet.

“My brother’s riding home with me, I can’t just leave him here.” David waved a hand aside.

“We weren’t planning on going anywhere far, just wanted to pick up something quick to eat on the boardwalk.” Michael mulled it over and nodded slowly.

“Um… sure then.” David smiled brightly and clapped a hand on Michael’s shoulder, leading him out of the alley.

“Great!”

 

~~~~~

 

The girl named Star quickly left claiming that she was going to find Laddie and Dwayne. Michael barely noticed her departure since Marko bounded up towards them, yelling something towards Paul. The duo met in the middle and slapped hands together while sticking their tongues out and began to ramble on about how great their little prank was. David scowled at them but the expression quickly left his face as he turned to Michael.

“Sorry about them. I know they can be a bit much.” Michael shrugged. At least he wasn’t the only one a little put off by their demeanor.

“It’s fine. I bet you never have a boring moment with them though.” David smirked as he watched the two boys bounce off towards a food stall. David nudged Michael in the direction of an unoccupied table near the edge of the sand.

“Never a dull moment, indeed.” David planted himself on top of the table instead of a seat and clapped his hands. “So! What brings you to Santa Carla, Michael?”

Michael thought to himself about how best he should answer that question, he didn’t really want to lie to David. Actually, he really wanted to tell David quite a bit about his situation, but that would really be TMI and Michael didn’t want to scare off a new possible friend so quickly.

“Parents got divorced.” Michael shrugged. “Mom decided to move us here.” David nodded.

“Divorce huh? What for?”

“Dad’s a dick,” Michael could wax lyrical about all the nonsense his family had been through thanks to his father, but he really didn’t think David would care to listen nor did he want to talk David’s ear off about it. “Not much else to it.” David frowned a little but nodded.

“Yeah I getcha. My dad’s kind of an ass too.” Michael felt the wave of confusion wash over himself. For a moment he felt like he was somewhere completely different.

In the dark of the night, running away temporarily from yet another fight his parents were having. He was so excited about that damn bike too. And all Michael wanted was to be alone for a little while but here was this weird kid stretching himself out on the bench Michael had sitting been on previously.

“Hey, are you ok?” David studied Michael’s face curiously. Michael mentally cursed to himself and shot David a sheepish smile.

“Sorry, I just got this feeling like we did this before. Deja Vu, you know?” David didn’t stop studying Michael’s face. Michael felt nervous suddenly and rubbed the back of his head. “I just feel like I’ve met you before or something. Weird right?” David leaned back and nodded. His expression seemed worried almost, if only for a moment.

“It’s funny that you say that, because I was thinking the same thing.”

And damn it, Michael felt his heat jump a little at the small amused smile David was wearing. Like it was such a coincidental yet amusing thing to him. Almost like this was just a joke to him. But the tone David spoke with had no hint of meanness, of the playful tone that implied he was joking.

“We got the food bitches!” Paul shouted as he and Marko jogged back over with a mound-full of burgers and fries and a couple of sodas.

Michael let out a small laugh as David finally slunk off the table and nudged Michael to sit down, demanding he take the seat next to him.

Paul and Marko egged each other on over tales of stupid shit they’ve done. They tried to one up each other with stories to enlighten Michael as to which of them was dumber than the other. One time Marko thought it would be a great time to try and charm a tiger to let him ride it and ran off screaming as the large cat snarled and swatted at him, chasing after him through the circus while patrons screamed and the wranglers struggled to get the cat under control. Paul once tried to chase after a raccoon that got his last butt of weed and got ran over like an idiot.

Michael laughed so hard at some moments, he couldn’t believe these two! Did they seriously have no impulse control or were these just examples of some moments David and Dwayne wasn’t able to get them under wraps?

Michael snorted and took a sip of his soda. Out of the corner of his eye he saw David watching him with a blank expression, like David was trying to hard to conceal what he was thinking. Michael turned to look at David but before he could say or do anything he felt himself drawn in by his eyes.

Michael swallowed when he felt how his stomach fluttered when the expression on David’s face changed. David softly smiled back at Michael and turned to chuck a fry at Marko.

Michael turned away and took another drink of his soda.

Maybe the food was making him sick?

Michael came to enjoy the trio’s antics. David's calm persona and air of authority typically managed to bring Paul and Marko back down whenever they started to get a little too excited and soothed Michael's worry and unease. Supposedly Dwayne was more like David and yet vastly different and Michael was a little excited to see how that looked in action.

Eventually, Michael noticed Paul and Marko got real quiet as they eyed a group of girls whom wandered by completely unaware of the hyperactive boys. The two shared a look and then looked at David.

"Don't get too crazy," David nodded at them and off they went like a pair of rabid hounds. Michael watched as they disappeared into the crowd.

"So I take it you guys hang out here often?" Michael looked back at David whom shrugged.

"Were here almost every night unless we're feeling particularly rambunctious." Michael nodded. "Hey," David nudged Michael with his elbow as he stood. "I got loads of dirt on this boardwalk. Why don't I show you around?" Michael smiled and stood up. He snatched the few pieces of trash that remained and chucked then into the can before trailing after David.

"Alright then. Impress me with your knowledge." David let out a quiet snort.

"That store had a secret weed dispensary in the back a few years ago. Paul was super pissed when the cops raided the joint and shut it down. They had some weird freaky blends according to him." Michael snorted and shook his head.

"Of course. Do I even want to know what that entails?" They continued to leisurely stroll down the boardwalk as they talked.

"They experimented by mixing up meth and cocaine and other drugs with their weed. Some people started to get pretty bad trips because of it and that's when the cops came in." Michael nodded. "They were seeing eyes everywhere and blood and eviscerated corpses. Real brutal stuff." David chuckled at the memory. Michael grimaced when he tried to imagine what that must have been like.

"Down that way there used to be a brothel like....oh shit that was about thirty years ago. Though they didn't call it that back then. Come to think of it there also used to be a strip club in that same spot. I think it burned down thirteen years ago?"

"Are you a history buff or something?" David shook his head.

"No, but I've been here for a really long time. Kinda picked up on this info on accident." David's smile twisted as if he took a mean delight in it.

"Oh..." Michael looked away. David nudged him with his elbow. "That joint has been at least ten different bar restaurants AND has changed owners hands at least seventeen times." Michael smirked.

"So that's you're local cursed hot spot? Think there were three in my town back in Phoenix." David returned Michael's smirk with his own.

"The last owner change might have been our fault..." Michael gaped.

"What? What did you do?"

"The last owner was a pedo. One night a while back I caught him trying to kidnap some poor kid. Of course, we couldn't just let him get away with hurting anyone else in our territory like that so we might have destroyed his life a little." Michael shook his head.

"Oh no, don't tell me I don't want to know. I'll become an accomplice." David belted out a laugh.

“Look, down there was where I caught the fucker.” David pointed a little ways away. “This kid got distracted by something in the store and his dad just wandered off without him. Before the kid could run after his dad to look for him the pedo just wandered up and dragged him down that way.” Michael whistled.

“Nobody noticed?”

“It was a crowded night and the guy was talking loudly like he was the father so that no one would listen to the kid when he called for help. If I hadn’t been watching I probably wouldn’t have noticed either.” Michael nodded.

The whole scenario felt familiar to him and when they passed the alley David pointed to Michael felt fuzzy, like he should remember that spot or something. He must have been staring down that way for a long moment because David nudged him again. Michael turned and saw the small worried glint in David’s eyes.

“You’re a good guy David.” David let out a puff of air as if to laugh and shook his head. “I gotta be honest, I was a little worried when I first met Marko.” David cut Michael off before he could continue.

“Marko’s a little shit and you SHOULD be worried when it comes to him.”

“Ok but then what about Paul?”

“Watch out for him. He likes to start shit when he’s bored and that typically means him and Marko but he might test you out every now and then.”

“Dwayne?” David paused and tilted his head as he thought.

“Mmmm you should be fine with Dwayne. So long as you don’t start shit with him he wont bother you. And he finds like weird shit to use too, Marko could be chucking popcorn at Dwayne but he’ll retaliate with bugs or stuff’s Marko’s stuff with moldy feathers and nasty shit covered straw.” Michael crinkled his nose. “Yeah, I don’t know why either. Don’t particularly remember what he was retaliating against, it was a long time ago.”

“Dwayne sounds like he’d be the worst to piss off.” David nodded.

“That’s arguable, but you get the gist of it.” David gestured towards one of the rides they were now walking past. “When they first built this one they didn’t have an evacuation plan set up, no stairs in most spots, no way to pull the carts back or forth to a safe spot, nothing. The first time it broke down the riders were stuck in there for a good hour. The second time they got stopped in a different spot and used the momentum from rocking their bodies forwards and backwards to get themselves off of one of the bumps.” David snickered. “They ended up gaining so much momentum that they catapulted their cart forward and got stuck in an even worse spot.” Michael looked at the ride and where David had been pointing towards.

“That sounds like a pretty bad day.”

“The first time it happened at like noon during the summer so naturally it was boiling hot. I think a couple of people got heat stroke.”

“Glad I wasn’t there for that then.” David nodded in agreement. They continued down the boardwalk and paused to watch the waves once they neared a different, less populated segment of the beach.

They stood in silence for a few minutes and enjoyed the fresh air of the night. Michael was glad that he gave David and his buddies a chance and hanged out with them tonight, it’s certainly a lot better than spending time alone and alienated in a crowd. He noticed David glancing over at him and then away. David seemed to like looking at him a lot, but maybe that’s because he felt like he’s met Michael before too? Michael certainly felt thrown off by the sensation every now and then and worked hard to ignore the feeling, less he fall into that same daze Lucy insisted he goes into every now and then.

David gasped suddenly and took a step back, clutching at his head.

“David?” Michael nearly jumped as he turned to look at David who took a few heavy seething breaths. “What’s wrong?” David shook his head and took one last breath before looking at Michael once more.

“Just a sudden headache. Don’t worry about it.” Michael looked over David’s form worried but nodded once it seemed like David was well enough. “Why don’t we go find that brother of yours before he gets himself into trouble?”

David took a moment when Michael’s back was to him to wipe away the stray tears that began to fall from his eyes.

 

~~~~~

 

Marko chirruped as he finished doing Paul’s hair and pushed Paul away. Star watched on quietly and dragged her fingers down the braid of her hair. They all agreed that tonight would be their last night of doing this even though she technically wasn’t pack anymore.

Laddie was taking a nap now. Earlier they were feeling hungry and ill, Dwayne had to drag them away from the crowds and rides just to keep the temptation away. At the time they were simply walking along the beach, occasionally tossing a stone back into the ocean, when it happened like a snap.

Dwayne let out a cry. Star and Laddie clutched at their chests and gaped for air as their thirst for blood fled into the night. The sudden beating of their hearts made their heads swim for a moment and when it stopped they realized that they were finally human again.

Their plan succeeded, Max was dead.

At first Star was excited. She and Laddie ran and cried and laughed in the spray of the ocean and danced for their freedom. Star cradled Laddie in her arms as he asked her if this means that they can finally go home and she chanted “Yes Laddie, you can finally go home!”

Laddie could return to his family and Star… Well, at least she had the sun again.

Star’s excitement died off a little when she saw the ill look on Dwayne’s face. He smiled at her a little and nodded. Watching from afar while the two took joy in the salty spray of the ocean.

Then when they met up with Paul and Marko at the cave, Star felt significantly less excited. The boys were ecstatic earlier, in the midst of a hunt when she saw them before the snap, but now they seemed subdued in a grieving sort of manner. When she asked them if they were ok they tried to not snap, they said that they were absolutely happy that the silly fucker was dead, but Star began to understand their pain.

From what she gathered over time, Max was by no means a decent father to them. But he gave them things when they had nothing. He gave them a family, freedom, bountiful joy in the form of endless nights. It had been years and Star still had her own nostalgic moments of childhood bliss. She used to hate herself whenever she snapped out of those memories. Felt disgusted by how much she missed those innocent days because now she knew better. She shouldn’t be feeling such things… right?

And then David returned home. He still had on his typical airs of disinterest, but his mask was weak and Star could see how despondent he truly was. Out of everyone, David had spent the most time with Max, had more memories, experiences, and history with Max. And although it was primarily his decision to leave Max’s death up to fate, it wasn’t an easy decision.

He would have to live with the knowledge that he essentially sentenced his sire to death.

David walked up to Star who was currently being held still by a hyper-focused Marko braiding her hair. Without a word he pulled out a wad of cash and shoved it into her hands. For a moment Star wondered if David was trying to mentally convey something because he remained silent for a moment too long. His lips were sealed shut and speaking seemed to be a touch too difficult for him.

“Get some rest and then take Laddie home.” his voice was hoarse. Star nodded and watched as David turned away and stomped back out of the cave.

Barely half an hour later he still hadn’t returned. Marko and Paul were already done with their hair routines and were cleaning up some of their supplies while Star watched them. By their bickering and yawns, Star knew that it was getting late for the vampires. The sun should be up in a few more hours and Laddie was already asleep in his bed.

“Is he…. Is he ok?” Star finally spoke up. Paul and Marko paused and glanced at her before looking away.

“I’ll go get him soon. We should be going to sleep soon anyway.” Dwayne muttered from the couch. He had his nose shoved into an old book.

Star bit her lip and stood up and smoothed her skirt down.

“It’s ok. I’m gonna go talk to him…”

Star picked her way towards the entrance and noticed how much more difficult it was to see the trash on the floor and hazards in her path. She couldn’t hear the heart beats of the birds and bats that resided in the cave nor the rats. The dried iron scent of blood that used to perforate the cave was no longer easily detected by her nose, now the cave only smelled of dust and musty air.

As she neared the exit of the cave she saw how light the sky was despite the fact that the sun had yet to rise over the horizon. Another hour or so and there it would be. And just outside the door, sitting with his legs dangling over the edge of the stairwell, facing out towards the ocean, David sat sulking and smoking in silence.

“David,” Star spoke softly. He didn’t turn to acknowledge her. She left half a foot of space between them as she sat down facing the ocean and enjoyed the cool morning breeze on her face. She wasn’t really able to feel the cold when she was a half-vampire. “I,” she paused.

There really was no easy or proper way to say “thanks for killing your father-figure for me.” But it turned out that she didn’t need to say it just yet because David decided to speak instead.

“I used to have a sister…” he tone was lifeless, as though now he was only tired. Star turned and saw the residue of tears on his cheeks that he hadn’t managed to wipe away. “I don’t remember much about her… but you kind of remind me of her.”

Star looked back out towards the ocean. She felt guilty. This was a side of David no one was ever supposed to see.

“What happened to her?” she whispered.

“Same thing that happens to every other mortal human.” David waved his hand out before chucking his spent cigarette into the ocean. “One day she got sick and then she died.” He sighed heavily and leaned back onto his hands. “The funny thing was, Max was there the entire time. He could have saved her for me but nope, he didn’t want her. I think I always resented him a little for that. But I think she would have been a lot like you.” he tapped his fingers against the old wood. “She wouldn’t have made it as a vampire.”

Star wondered why David was telling her this. He didn’t like to reveal a whole lot about himself typically and this just opened a whole can of worms labeled “David’s backstory”. She turned to look at him a little and saw the soft and sad expression on his face.

David didn’t actually want to kill his sire. He didn’t want to help Star become human and set her free nor did he experience a lack of guilt for his actions.

Maybe if Max hadn’t turned Laddie. Maybe if Star didn’t remind David of his sister. Maybe if Max hadn’t taken a turn for the deep end…

Their story would have been vastly different.

“I’m sorry for your loss…” Star whispered. She felt the tears fall from her eyes as she turned back to watch the horizon. “But thank you for helping me and Laddie.”

She swallowed back her tears and scrunched her hands into a fist. This was a miracle, a gift given to a set of half-vampires that typically would not have been given. By all reason, Star and Laddie would have either died or turned. By all means, that should have been their fate.

Death as human, Death as a half-vampire, or Death of a monster.

But this today, this was a gift, a miracle, a second chance at life. And this wasn’t one Star was keen on forgetting. Ever.

Some part of her wanted to tell David that she was scared. She still technically had nowhere to go, no one to see. But she knew so much more now and just like before, Star would simply have to take it one day at a time.

Right now, as a human, that’s all she could do.

One day at a time, things will eventually get better.

“You know, we don’t know if Agnes is dead too or not.” the tone David used was a playful one. He began to stand up and brushed off his pants.

“That’s ok.” Star took his hand when he offered it and stood up too. “If I catch them on my trail, I’ll just lead them back to you.” David rolled his eyes and turned away.

“Typical. Make the man do the hard work.” Star giggled as she followed David back into the cave.

“You boys were just complaining about how bored you were not a week ago. A fight sounds like a pretty interesting way to waste time to me.” David nodded. “David,” Star grabbed his jacket before he could slink off into the depths of his cave after his pack mates. “Please be nice to Michael. He seemed like a sweet boy.” David’s shoulders slumped as he let out a deep irritated sigh.

“I already got nagged by his mother. Don’t worry about it.” Star shook her head with a laugh and let go.

“You met his mom and you’re listening to her?” David turned away and began to walk away quickly. “Oh my god, there might be hope for you yet!” she called after him and laughed as he flipped her laugh.

Maybe she’ll come back some day…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lately i've been really focused on family related stories and idk why. I used to believe that fics that people focus on and the themes of those stories tend to hold a vital thing that the reader desires or lacks. Love, affection, excitement. A bond or connection with an important person that you're missing from your real life. Solutions and resolutions that can help you feel better about your own situations.
> 
> My story (non-fanfic) kind of has the same themes, although initially it began as a piece depicting the dangers of not passing on information properly through the family line and how the burdens of your family's past can sabotage your future if it isn't properly addressed. But when I first started that story I had been throwing all my rage and loneliness in regards to my family into it. I demonized the mother and made the relationship extremely flat and it didn't feel real what-so-ever. I've spent almost a year now working on that story, I've rewritten it multiple times and now i'm working on hopefully the final edit. I've given everyone as much depth as I could muster and in the process made the mother and daughter's relationship much more complex and fleshed out. I still feel a lot of anger and betrayal and shame towards everyone in my family, but I think i've come to understand it better now and living far away from them has helped a lot.
> 
> And in doing so I've become resolved to give each character the attention and depth they deserve and I think that might show itself here. Too many things in life will remain a mystery, but the factors and characters in my story don't need to be like that. I want my stories to contain all the things I've wanted and needed. The kind words and lessons that I had to learn on my own, earn with no guiding hand, fulfill the holes I have left in my heart that I can't honestly expect even my girlfriend or friends to fill for me. So no, this story in particular might not take on the typical note that Lost Boys had with horror and gore. I don't think it needs to.
> 
> And I hope that going forward, you all will continue to find things in this story that you crave. Maybe even things you didn't know you needed. And I hope that you continue to enjoy each chapter, whenever I happen to post them.
> 
> Thank you.


	7. Chapter 7 - So Here's the Thing...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David's been down since Max's death and is in denial. His boys decide to take matters into their own hands. Lucy is a little hesitant, but if they're so intent to be apart of Michael's life then she'll be damned if she doesn't force David to confront some of the problems he's created.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a.k.a Could it be time for part two of Lost Boy?
> 
> I think so.

Lucy knew something had to be up. Not even a week ago, she stood up to David and his clan. No retribution ever came.

Apparently, Michael hanged out with them one night last week and the vampires had been sparse ever since. Michael had seen Marko and Paul and Dwayne here and there, they’d have a small conversation, but that was it. Michael wouldn’t admit it, but he was actually a little sad that he had no way to meet up with them outside of the boardwalk. Those random encounters meant that if he’d ever wanted to catch them, he’d have to happen upon them by chance.

Right now, Lucy had no way to tell whether it was a good or bad thing that David seemed to be keeping his distance. She hoped that maybe he decided against having anything to do with Michael, but that was highly unlikely. David had been waiting for twelve years. That kind of obsession didn’t die in just one night.

Lucy sighed heavily as she looked down at her boys. The past week had been rough in so many ways, and since the video store she just got a job at closed, she was already searching high and low for a new job. She felt kind of worried about what happened to her boss Max. He disappeared the night after he hired her and there are no clues to be found for his whereabouts.

With a recent divorce and move, with no job and an impending vampire threat looming over her head, it’s a wonder Lucy didn’t have a mental break down by now.

Lucy was hoping to have some nice family time tonight, but apparently the hike Michael and Sam went out on took a lot out of them. Still, it was rare for them to nap next to one another and snuggle like they used to. Her boys sleeping next to each other on the couch was a pretty cute sight. But growing boys and exhausted mothers need food. And it’s already getting late.

Lucy swore her blood froze solid within her own veins as she herd the raucous roar of multiple motorcycles. Four of them.

The boys were coming.

Lucy knew from her research that vampires couldn’t enter a house without being invited. So none of them should be able to enter just yet. Still, leaving them at the door without talking to them wouldn’t be polite. She should at least see what they want before she alienates them like that.

Stiffly, she walked over to the door and open it just enough to stand within the doorway. She was fully prepared to dodge straight back into the house and out of their reach should they decide to get violent. The tall blonde one, Paul, was already standing at the door, leaning his arm up on the doorway casually.

“Hey momma!” Paul smirked down at Lucy. “Michael’s in, yeah?”

Lucy glanced at the other boys. Marco was relaxing at the top of the steps, watching Paul with mild amusement. David was taking his sweet time getting off of his bike. Dwayne stood next to David with his arms crossed and staring down at David.

David shot Dwayne a glare. If it weren’t for the fact that their mouths weren’t moving, Lucy would think they were having a conversation.

“What do you want Michael for?” Lucy opted to ignore the question.

Paul’s eyes glanced in through the doorway and then back down towards David. He sighed heavily when Dwayne shot him a look. Paul rolled his eyes and Marco snorted.

“Look, David’s been kinda down in the dumps. He’s a real buzzkill. But Michael makes him happy, so we thought maybe forcing David to spend time with Michael would help.”

Lucy saw the glare David shot Paul from his bike as he adjusted the sleeves of his coat. She must have taken a touch too long to speak up, because Dwayne intervened. He walked up the steps slowly and kept his stance open.

“We aren’t here to hurt Michael or any of you.” He spoke softly. “And we aren’t planning on changing him anytime soon. That’s something he’ll have to choose for himself.”

Paul nodded and pointed at Dwayne.

“Yeah! That! Forcing people to make the change never turns out well. You run the risk of creating a crazy dysfunctional vampire, I would know.” The smirk Paul shot back at Lucy made her wonder if he was actually speaking about himself.

“Mom? Whose at the door?” Michael called groggily from the couch. Lucy saw the way David twitched, that mild sign of interest he was working so hard to cover up.

“Do you promise?” Lucy whispered.

David met eyes with her and nodded solemnly. He didn’t look too happy about it. Well, he didn’t look happy, period.

But Michael really could use some good friends. And from the looks of it, David could really use some good company. Even if he was trying to conceal that fact.

Lucy gripped the doorframe tight before she pushed the door open wider.

“You boys got here before I could get dinner ready, but come on in.”

A light flickered in Paul’s eyes. Marco seemed mildly shocked but David seemed genuinely happy despite the flatness of his expression.

“Whose here?” Sam stretched and yawned.

Michael was standing by the backside of the couch, watching Lucy for any sign that he would need to intervene. But his eyes lit up with surprise and a little bit of happiness at seeing his friends. Paul and Marco practically bounded into the house and ganged up on Michael for a greeting while Dwayne nearly shoved David into the house behind them.

“Wha—” Michael gaped as Paul slapped the backside of his shoulder with a smirk and Marco elbowed him on the other side. “What are you guys doing here?”

“What?” Sam stood on the opposite side of the couch. “How come his friends get to come over? They’re crazy bikers!”

“Next time your friends can come over.” Lucy said diplomatically.

Lucy almost sighed to herself as she saw the sheepish smile Michael shot David. David cooly slid an arm over Michael’s shoulder and smirked at the burnet.

“Hope you didn’t miss us too much, something came up.”

Lucy nearly smacked her own forehead when she saw the expression on Michael’s face. How long did her boy have a crush on David? How much did this crush effect Michael’s other dates with girls? Michael probably didn’t even realize it himself, her poor somewhat amnesiac boy.

“Nothing illegal, I hope.” Michael smirked back at David. “I’m not too interested in being an accessory.”

Paul snickered. Although whether it was in response to what Michael said, or the mildly scared and hesitant look on Sam’s face, was a mystery.

Sam looked nervous as he eyed each vampire from behind the couch. He looked over Michael and Lucy, almost like he wanted to run to one of them for protection. But with so many obstacles in his path, he couldn’t get to either without having to brush past directly next to one of the vampires. Dwayne wasn’t met with so much hesitation as the others, but the crowd itself was clearly making him nervous.

“I was thinking about ordering some pizza, boys.” Lucy intercepted the group to stand near Sam. She noticed him relax slightly now that she had her hand on his shoulder, ready to push him away and into the kitchen. “What sounds good for tonight?”

“Marco.” David turned to Marco. Marco did a lazy salut and began to make a bee-line for the exit.

Lucy watched, a little confused.

“He’ll go get the food.” Dwayne explained.

“Oh,” Lucy began. “I can pay boys, it’s not a problem.”

“Naaaahhh!” Paul slung an arm over Lucy’s shoulder. Sam glared heavily at Paul. “We’re the one’s imposing! Marco’s got it!”

Dwayne grabbed Paul’s ear and pulled him away from Lucy.

“Personal space.” Dwayne mumbled as he shoved Paul into a seat on the couch.

Paul whined as he fell into his seat.

“You guys want a drink?” Michael said suddenly. David reluctantly let go and followed Michael into the kitchen.

Lucy watched them gather drinks. Dwayne remained standing almost directly in front of Paul. She turned and they met eyes briefly. Sam was practically radiating his nervous energy and Lucy knew she’d have to start a conversation, do literally anything to settle her boy down. Sending him to his room to hide wouldn’t help things, and the sooner everyone got on friendlier terms, the easier this would become.

Before Lucy could speak up, Michael and David returned.

“How’s work been little momma?” Paul called from behind Dwayne. He sunk further down into his seat and kicked a foot up onto the coffee table which Dwayne immediately knocked down.

“Oh yeah,” Michael passed her a cup of water and Sam a bottle of soda. “How did the job hunt go today?” David passed Dwayne something which he then passed to Paul. David quickly slunk over to claim the armchair for himself.

Lucy nudged Sam over towards the other chair to sit down in. It was opposite of David, but it was also the furthest from the other vampires. Michael relaxed on the arm of the couch near Sam and Dwayne seated down directly next to Paul. Paul nudged Dwayne a little with his leg and elbow but stopped when Dwayne shot him a mild glare.

“Oh,” Lucy rubbed her cup and took a sip of her water. “Well, long story short, my boss went missing last week and now the store is closed. So I’m pretty much out of a job again.” She sighed heavily. Michael had that same worried look in his eyes that he always had when his family was having some problems. “But don’t worry sweetie. I’m sure that I’ll be able to find something else soon.”

She could see the gears in Michael’s head moving. She knew from experience what he was thinking. So before he could speak, she put a hand on his head and kissed the top of it.

“We still have enough in our savings and Dad said he’d help us too, so don’t even think about it.”

“But mom,” Michael started up.

“No, Michael.” She could see Sam fidgeting out of the corner of her eye. Maybe this wasn’t a great conversation to be having in front of him and the vampires, but if she didn’t nip it in the bud now, then Michael would never let it go. “You’re going to enjoy your summer vacation and then you’re going to finish high school. You are not quitting just to get a job.”

“Then I won’t quit. Just something small, part-time. I have to pay for my own gas somehow anyway.”

“Michael,” Lucy began.

Dwayne cleared his throat.

“The gas station over by the boardwalk is looking for someone who can work afternoons. Plus the pawn shop over by Malley’s Arcade has an opening.”

Lucy didn’t know who he was talking to. Her or Michael. She turned to look at him and saw Dwayne looking at her from the side.

“We know the guys that own the pawn shop.” David followed up. “We’ll put in a good work for you.”

Lucy met eyes with David and felt mild relief. She already spoke with the pawn shop earlier, they seemed to like her enough, so that might actually work out well in her favor.

“That would be really helpful.” Lucy said carefully.

She didn’t know the kind of person David was yet. Perhaps he was the kind of guy where this favor would require re-payment. Or maybe he genuinely wanted to help. Either way, she had no real way of knowing. But no matter which way his motives went, she doubted this would change their relationship much.

“That’s really weird that your boss went missing though.” Sam spoke up once the silence permeated too long for his liking. “Especially when you just started.”

The door banged loudly and Lucy jumped. Dwayne growled and Lucy could hear Marco cackle loudly from the other side. Lucy hesitated to go open the door, but it didn’t matter because Dwayne held up a hand and went to open it himself.

“Sorry,” the impish smile on his face made Lucy think he wasn’t actually apologetic. “Didn’t mean to scare you!”

“What’d you get?” Paul jumped over the backside of the couch.

“Pizza.” Dwayne said with a flat tone.

“Hope you guys like olives!” Marco snickered when Paul and Sam made a grossed out sound.

“Let’s put that on the counter.” Lucy suggested and led the boys into the kitchen. She cleared out plenty of counter space for the three boxes Marco got and wondered if all of these boys really needed that much food. Did vampires even need normal human food?

“I’ll get grandpa!” Sam all but ran over to the old man’s workshop and snuck in through a crack.

Lucy thought it was an odd choice for Sam to run away into that room, but maybe he wanted to warn Dad about it first. She began pulling plates from the cabinet and turned to see Michael and David chatting over by the couches still. Michael looked a little peeved as David all but hovered over him. The slight smirk on David’s face and the light tone of teasing was all that Lucy could catch from her position.

“He agrees with you. That’s all they’re talking about.” Dwayne said quietly. He took some of the plates from Lucy’s hands and passed Paul and Marco their own.

“We should have forced David to come over sooner.” Paul whispered.

If the boys already knew what David was saying, then could they hear clearly what they were talking about?

“Was it really that bad?” Lucy asked. She watched the boys picking their slices and heard Michael laugh in the other room.

Dwayne and the others paused in silence for a moment. They looked like they were lost in their thoughts for a few seconds before Dwayne spoke up once more. The other two went back to their food gathering.

“Max… is dead.” Lucy set the plates down gently before she could drop them. Before she could come to her own assumptions, Dwayne continued. “He had plans that we didn’t agree with. He was going to hurt some people and David decided that he couldn’t let Max’s insanity continue any longer. It’s been a little difficult. Max was like a father to us.”

Lucy tried to piece together what Dwayne said. Paul and Marco finally turned and left the kitchen for the living room. Paul laughed loudly and made a jab at Michael and David that Lucy didn’t quite catch. Dwayne paused before he too returned to the living room.

Max was insane? He was going to hurt someone? Did they kill Max?

But if Max was practically their father, then was he also a vampire?

“Where did Star wander off to anyhow?” Michael asked as he and David finally made their way into the kitchen. Lucy handed them both a plate.

“Oh, she and Laddie went back home.” Lucy saw David shoot her a look behind Michael’s back. Lucy briefly made eye-contact with him. “They didn’t have to stay here anymore, so they bailed back on Thursday.”

Wednesday night was the night that Max first left. Knowing what she does now, that’s also probably when he died. But did this Star and Laddie also die, or did they really go home?

“Hey mom, aren’t you going to eat?” Michael turned to Lucy and gestured to the pizza.

Lucy hoped the smile she shot Michael was a nice calm one and not one filled with nervousness.

“I will. I was just wondering if Dad and Sam are going to come back out, or if I should bring them some food.”

“Yeah, I think I saw Sam run into Grandpa’s workshop. It’s kind of weird. Sam hates that room.”

The door of the workshop slid open.

“Yeah and I still do.” Sam mumbled.

Grandpa followed Sam closely behind. He eyed the vampires in the house briefly as they both walked into the kitchen.

“Grandpa, you’re not visiting your friend tonight?” Michael asked politely as Lucy handed them their plates.

“No, we had to reschedule.” Lucy got Grandpa something to drink and watched as the boys hovered between the living room and the kitchen and everyone chatted amongst one another.

She rested her fingers on her plate, ready to grab her slice, but she was so distracted by her thoughts that she just couldn’t move.

David didn’t want to force Michael to turn. He wasn’t going to tear Lucy’s family apart. Hopefully. They weren’t here to kill her dad or her sons. They were just upset that their father figure was gone, and the other boys forced David to come see Michael in an attempt to cheer him up.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

Lucy wrung her hands. If everyone was safe and ok, why was she so nervous and worried. What was left to be so afraid of?

“Mom?” Lucy jumped when Michael approached her. “Are you ok?” He rested a hand on her forehead with a soft frown. “You’re getting a little scatterbrained there, and that’s kind of my thing.”

Lucy frowned.

“Sweetie, you’re not scatterbrained. You just…” And that was it.

Lucy glanced at David. He watched her from the corner of his eye from the doorway. Sam and Grandpa both watched her from their spots at the table. Even the other boys slowly stopped their conversation and looked over at Lucy.

Lucy looked at her dad. The solemn and worried gaze in his eyes. She knew for a fact that he was originally going to visit his lady friend tonight, but his trepidation and weariness of the vampires made her wonder. No. He had to have known about those boys. She vaguely recalled a time when he warned her about them back when she was a little girl.

Funny how she couldn’t remember that until a few days ago.

“Michael, Sam.”

“Yeah?” They said at the same time.

“Do you remember the last time we visited grandpa?”

She saw them both frown from the corner of her eyes. She looked back to David and his boys.

“We….We never visited grandpa before.” Sam started, so unsure of himself.

“Do you remember how we went to the boardwalk, and I let you go off on your own for a while?”

As Lucy went on with her line of questioning, David’s expression closed itself off more and more. She knew that any minute now, Sam and Michael would be gone. Off into their own world of missing memories.

“We, never…” Michael’s voice broke.

“Those comics Sam got, that jewelry you brought me.” Michael was already gone, but Sam needed one final push. She turned to look at Sam for a moment. “Sam, where did you get Nanook’s name from?”

And they were both gone.

That dazed expression, that familiar trance like state.

Grandpa had never seen it before, and she knew he must be freaking out at least a little bit by now. But she had seen it more than enough times now. And now she knew who caused it.

“At first, I thought maybe Michael was just traumatized.” She started softly. “He was almost kidnapped, what little kid wouldn’t be a little messed up by that?” Grandpa’s face went pale as she began to explain. He remembered Michael and Sam’s first trip, he knew what almost happened. “But then after our second visit out here…”

“This happens often?” David asked quietly. He approached Michael and waved a hand in front of his face.

“Subconsciously they remember. Sam knows he got Nanook’s name from a comic book. Michael knew he had a friend that suggested he get a guard dog for Sam. Amongst plenty of other things. But if they think too hard about the specific memories. If they actually try to remember…” She gestured to the boys. “You did something, didn’t you?”

Michael blinked a few times and looked back at Lucy.

“Mom? Are you ok? You’re getting a little scatterbrained there.”

Sam shook his head and looked around the table.

“You should have taken today off and gone on that hike with us!” Sam said and smiled at Lucy. “Maybe tomorrow we could go to the beach?”

Lucy laughed softly and shook her head.

“I thought you were going to see your friends tomorrow Sam. Aren’t you going to invite them over?” Sam glowed with excitement.

“They can come?” Lucy nodded.

“Of course, and if you boys want to come hang out every now and then here too, that’s fine.” David reeled back and turned away.

“I don’t understand…” Grandpa said quietly. Lucy went and grabbed herself a few slices of pizza.

“Don’t understand what?” Sam turned back to Grandpa.

Lucy sat herself down at the table and took a bite of her pizza. David took a sip of his drink and wandered around the house, inspecting the decorations Grandpa put up. He tried to look mildly interested in the horns and animals, but Lucy suspected he was considering the information Lucy just gave him.

“You’re so tiny, what are you, like six?” Marco patted the top of Sam’s head.

“What?” Sam’s voice cracked. Paul snickered. “Like you have any right to talk! You can’t be older than sixteen!”

“Oooooohhhh!!” Paul called and pointed at Marco. “He’s got you pegged!”

Dwayne shook his head at the display. But Sam must have felt encouraged by Paul’s cheering, because he continued.

“Seriously, that jacket isn’t fooling anyone.” Sam pointed at a tassel on Marco’s jacket. He face went blank for a few seconds before he came back and smirked at Marko.

“It’s not supposed to.” Marko leaned down and sneered into Sam’s face. “The bloodstains are the warning sign.” He gestured to a stain on his other sleeve. Sam blanked out again.

Michael rolled his eyes and poked Marko’s forehead.

“Quit trying to scare him. That’s my job.”

Marko leaned away with a pout.

“And here I thought I was making a friend.” He shrugged and backed off finally with a flourish of his hands. He began to gnaw on his gloved finger.

Paul flicked Marko’s forehead once he got close enough. Marko missed and swatted at the taller blond. Dwayne looked over the shelves and books. Occasionally, out of the corner of his eyes, he’d look at the group.

Lucy took a bite of her pizza and watched the boys banter amongst one another.

Maybe it was a mean thing to bring up when David was still clearly upset, but Lucy knew that he was probably the one responsible for Michael and Sam’s memory loss. She couldn’t do anything to fix it herself, so it was up to him.

If he wanted Michael that badly, then he’d need to come clean.

 

~~~~~

 

David took another breath of his cigarette and exhaled heavily. He tuned out the hum of voices coming from inside the house. Paul and Marco thought it would be important to teach Michael’s family some of their favorite card games. Not that he blamed them, playing with the same four people was only so fun after such a long time. Fresh blood tended to change the gameplay a little bit.

“Hey,” Michael opened the door and made his way to David. He sat on the steps next to the blond and handed him another bottle of soda. David accepted it with a nod for a greeting.

David was hoping Michael wouldn’t notice his missing status, but of course he did. All David wanted to do was think about his plan of action. If he left now to do that, Dwayne and the others would never let him hear the end of it. Michael was a distraction right now, but of course, most of the problems David needed to resolve also revolved around Michael.

“So what’s got you so down in the dumps?” David twitched and observed Michael from the corner of his eye. Michael gazed up at the cloudy sky.

“Down in the dumps.” David echoed quietly. He didn’t think he was actually ‘down in the dumps’ like the others suggested. He thought he was doing just fine.

“Yeah,” Michael blushed. “Well, I don’t know. You’re doing that thing most people do when they’re thinking too hard about something that doesn’t exactly make them happy.”

David smirked softly and shook his head. He turned towards Michael and leaned towards him somewhat.

“Am I most people, Michael?”

Michael turned towards David and froze for a brief moment. He pouted and turned away.

“No. But I don’t know you well enough yet to have a better comparison.” He took another sip from his soda.

David watched Michael for another moment before he popped his bottle open and took a swig. He passed Michael his cigarette and leaned back on his free hand.

“I don’t think I’m actually upset, but the others would probably tell you differently.” David readjusted his legs to be more comfortable in his lounging position.

Michael turned to look at David when he didn’t continue.

“Oh… Do you want to talk about it?” David shook his head and Michael nodded softly. He passed the cigarette back and pulled up a knee to rest his chest on.

David watched Michael quietly for a moment. He figured that Michael would probably find out about all of the vampire shenanigans David had been keeping from him eventually. There wasn’t really much point in keeping him completely out of the loop right now.

“Our dad just died.” Michael turned suddenly. He was clearly shocked because he didn’t expect David to say anything at all.

David smiled slightly and leaned forward once more. If he also scooted closer to Michael, well, no one was around to call him out on it.

“You remember what I said about him?” David asked.

“He was an ass.” Michael responded cautiously. David nodded and bumped shoulders with Michael.

“Total ass. So I’m not exactly broken up about it but…”

Michael looked over at David for a moment before looking back to the sky.

“There’s a lot of history there.”

David nodded.

“History. Yeah. And of course, now that he’s gone, I’ve got a lot of his messes to clean up.”

“Hm,” Michael took another drink from his soda. “That can be a pain. But if you ever need help, we’d be more than happy to…” Michael looked at David carefully, unsure.

It was too cute.

“That’s kind of why the boys insisted we come see you tonight. I think they thought hanging with a new friend might help.”

Michael turned more towards David with a sheepish smirk forming on his face. He leaned towards David slightly.

“Daw, did you really miss me that much?”

David rolled his eyes and leaned in too. He wrapped an arm around Michael’s shoulders and smirked when Michael blushed and tried to lean back. David lightly bumped his forehead against Michael’s.

“Maybe a little.”

David made sure to commit Michael’s blush to memory and promised that he’d make Michael blush as often as possible.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back! So this chapter is technically the start of the second ark of Lost Boy, and I couldn't really decide if I wanted this to be a separate work or not. But meh. For now, it can just be apart of the same work.
> 
> This ark seeks to finish certain plot points placed in the first ark, but I'm also gonna have more fluff between certain people. So let's have some fun!
> 
> Where have I been? Well, I finally finished and published my book to Amazon - you can find it [ here ](https://www.amazon.com/Calls-Me-Victoria-Walsh-ebook/dp/B07QS6762N/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=It+Calls+To+Me+Victoria+Walsh&qid=1560020561&s=gateway&sr=8-1)
> 
> And I'm almost ready to publish my second book to Amazon, but I'll talk more about that another time.
> 
> Until then, it was nice seeing you all! Thank you for reading!


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